Abstract
Rejecting the Christian tradition’s condemnation of sex work, this chapter considers how the sex trade could become just. It begins with a definition of sex work, explores the historical context around this work, and articulates how to reconsider sex work from the perspective of the workers, with reference to the biblical tradition, the Christian tradition, and theology.
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Notes
- 1.
Brock is an author, minister, and director of Faith Voices for the Common Good. Thistlethwaite is a professor of theology at Chicago Theological Seminary.
- 2.
“Pimp behavior suggests that they are trained for the job in abusive families. … We say “suggests” because, as far as we can determine, little formal research has been done on the psychology of pimps” (162–63; Italics mine).
- 3.
Tambe is a sociologist at the Center for Women’s Studies, University of Pune, India.
- 4.
Ipsen has a Ph.D. in Biblical Literature and has lectured at UC Berkeley in Interdisciplinary Studies.
- 5.
They interpreted Rahab as “always an agent, despite whatever constraints impinge on her decisions. Rahab chose to do sex work to make a living to help her family. … Sacrifice for family, even when it is a sacrifice that many respectable people cannot imagine opting for, needs to be recognized even if an utterly different kind of economy that does not require such sacrifice is desirable and needs to be envisioned” (Ipsen, 85).
- 6.
“included along with Noah’s wife, Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, Rachel, Miriam, Hannah, Naomi, Ruth and Esther as a woman of valor. … Among her descendants were seven kings, along with numerous priests and prophets, including Jeremiah, Baruch, Ezekiel, and Huldah” (Guider, 30).
- 7.
Matthew 26:6–13; Mark 14:3–9; Luke 7:36–50; John 12:1–8.
- 8.
To give just one example, “The city of Toulouse used the tax on prostitutes to build the university” (Brock and Thistlethwaite, 104).
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Cooper, T. (2018). Sex Work. In: A Christian Guide to Liberating Desire, Sex, Partnership, Work, and Reproduction. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70896-6_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70896-6_5
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