Homosexuality and Liminality, Israelites and Canaanites: The Queer Theology of the Boundary Crosser

Join Nehirim Executive Director Jay Michaelson for a scholarly lecture on Biblican constructions of homosexuality as a rhetoric of differentiating Israelites and Canaanites.

Biblical scholars have speculated that Biblical prohibitions on sexuality — especially cultic homosexuality — may have been intended to demarcate boundaries between Israelite and Canaanite, as part of the creation of an “Israelite” identity amongst a collection of Canaanite tribes. At the same time, some queer theologians and thinkers in the “gay spirituality” movement have sought to (re-)invent a suppressed queer identity that celebrates the transgression of precisely those boundaries. Is the postmodern invention of the “Canaanite” a fertile source for queer theology, or but a fantasy? And what are the political connotations of a post-Judaic conception of Israelite identity for gender, nationalism, and politics?

April 15, 2010, 1pm.

Graduate Theological Union • 2400 Ridge Road, Berkeley (Map)

Admission is Free

Part of the Israeli Consulate’s “Out in Israel” program