Christianity and Sexuality

No topic has been the object of greater controversy in Christian circles in recent decades than sexuality. Families, congregations, and even denominations risk being torn asunder by the question of whether homosexuality, in particular, is compatible with Christianity. Though this controversy hardly exhausts the topic at hand, it provides a useful point of entrée into the topic’s complexities, which are frequently overlooked.

Let’s start with two questions often heard in these debates: (1) Is homosexuality “natural” or is it a “lifestyle choice?” and (2) What does the Bible say about homosexuality? Both questions tacitly assume that the forms that sexuality takes in our time and place – and our understanding of “sexuality” itself – are universal and ahistorical. Yet the very terms of the questions belie that assumption as contemporary scholarship has shown. “Homosexuality” and “heterosexuality” are European inventions that date from the late nineteenth century (Foucault 1994; Katz 2007)...