Van Klinken, A orcid.org/0000-0003-2011-5537 (2018) Autobiographical Storytelling and African Narrative Queer Theology. Exchange, 47 (3). pp. 211-229. ISSN 0166-2740
Abstract
This article addresses a methodological question: How to develop African queer theology? That is, a theology that interrogates and counter-balances popular representations of queer sexuality as being “un-African” and “un-Christian”. Answering this question, the article specifically engages with African feminist theological work on storytelling as spiritually empowering and theologically significant. Where African feminist theologians have used her-stories to develop her-theologies, this article suggests that similarly, queer autobiographical storytelling can be a basis for developing queer theologies. It applies this methodology to the Kenyan queer anthology Stories of Our Lives (2015), which is a collection of autobiographical stories narrated by people identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex (LGBTI) or otherwise queer in Kenya. The article concludes with an intertextual reading of Stories of Our Lives and Mercy Oduyoye’s autobiographical essay about childlessness, pointing towards an African narrative queer theology of fruitfulness.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This is an author produced version of a paper published in Exchange. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | African theology; narrative theology; queer theology; Christianity; autobiography; LGBTI |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (Leeds) > Theology and Religious Studies (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 26 Feb 2018 10:32 |
Last Modified: | 05 Jul 2019 00:41 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Brill Academic Publishers |
Identification Number: | 10.1163/1572543X-12341487 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:127767 |