John Fournelle
I am a theologian who is deeply inspired by the symbols and metaphors of faith. For each of the three years of my seminary career, I had a motif that defined the course of study for that year.
The first motif was "Be Open."I wanted to be open to everything, to take in all of the teaching and own it, but also be critical of it. In this sense, I immediately opened myself up to the discourse of deconstruction and developed new hermeneutical skills for further theologizing.
The second motif was "Find my Niche" After opening myself to new thoughts, I felt the need to own my ideas and be more constructive. This meant finding a conversation partner (a theologian) that I could feel at home with. This conversation partner was Paul Tillich, who I hold responsible for both the disintegration and reintegration of my faith and theology.
The third and final motif was inspired by my experience of coming out: "Be Subversive!" Coming out has allowed me to own up to the tradition of liberation theology that I feel I was destined to inherit yet always hesitant to adopt. I took on a more prophetic role in my writing, exploring the new and developing discipline of queer theology and ethics.
Now, I am interested in the integration of all of this: existentialist, liberation, and queer theologies. I look forward to continuing the work I began in seminary, partnering with scholars of all three disciplines as I look to doctorate programs in theology.
Supervisors: Kyle Roberts and Thorsten Moritz
The first motif was "Be Open."I wanted to be open to everything, to take in all of the teaching and own it, but also be critical of it. In this sense, I immediately opened myself up to the discourse of deconstruction and developed new hermeneutical skills for further theologizing.
The second motif was "Find my Niche" After opening myself to new thoughts, I felt the need to own my ideas and be more constructive. This meant finding a conversation partner (a theologian) that I could feel at home with. This conversation partner was Paul Tillich, who I hold responsible for both the disintegration and reintegration of my faith and theology.
The third and final motif was inspired by my experience of coming out: "Be Subversive!" Coming out has allowed me to own up to the tradition of liberation theology that I feel I was destined to inherit yet always hesitant to adopt. I took on a more prophetic role in my writing, exploring the new and developing discipline of queer theology and ethics.
Now, I am interested in the integration of all of this: existentialist, liberation, and queer theologies. I look forward to continuing the work I began in seminary, partnering with scholars of all three disciplines as I look to doctorate programs in theology.
Supervisors: Kyle Roberts and Thorsten Moritz
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Thesis by John Fournelle
Papers by John Fournelle
Homosexuality is normal in that it is not abnormal; it is not a psychological disorder, even though the anxiety of being homosexual in a culture where it is not accepted can become a neurosis or even a psychosis. Homosexuality is not normal in that it is not the norm; it is a minority position. Homosexuality is natural in that for many it is a state where one could not change without doing violence to oneself. Homosexuality is not natural in that it does not serve the biological purpose of procreation.
However, homosexuality is supranatural in that it is a love that exists beyond the biological purpose of procreation and supranormal in that it is a love that manifests itself outside the norm of heterosexuality. No one can say that one loves another for the sole purposes of procreation, or that one loves within the limits of one’s society and culture; this is not the testimony of love. The task for Christian ethics is to recognize the dynamics of love within homosexual relationships, to develop a just ethic for an all-encompassing ethic of love for heterosexual and homosexual relationships, and to recognize the unique place and perspective of queer persons within the very same ethic.
Using homosexuality as a case example for this paper, and studying from the location of Christianity, the research question complicates to “what is the intersection between sexual identity and Christian identity vis-à-vis homosexuality?” While this study will integrate several insights from psychology on identity formation, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the issue of homosexual identity from a Christian theological perspective.
I survey three approaches to the intersection of homosexual and Christian identity: antithetical, compatible, and integrative. While I hold to an integrative view of Christian sexual identity, I will argue that care must be attended to the person struggling with the relationship between their sexual identity and their Christian identity. I offer several approaches to fostering Christian homosexual identity formation within churches. However, the navigation of the relationship will ultimately have to be situational, even with such preunderstandings.
Essays by John Fournelle
This paper explores the epistemological undercurrents of the questions posed, unmasking the heteronormativity of the inquiries and proposing a way forward.
Homosexuality is normal in that it is not abnormal; it is not a psychological disorder, even though the anxiety of being homosexual in a culture where it is not accepted can become a neurosis or even a psychosis. Homosexuality is not normal in that it is not the norm; it is a minority position. Homosexuality is natural in that for many it is a state where one could not change without doing violence to oneself. Homosexuality is not natural in that it does not serve the biological purpose of procreation.
However, homosexuality is supranatural in that it is a love that exists beyond the biological purpose of procreation and supranormal in that it is a love that manifests itself outside the norm of heterosexuality. No one can say that one loves another for the sole purposes of procreation, or that one loves within the limits of one’s society and culture; this is not the testimony of love. The task for Christian ethics is to recognize the dynamics of love within homosexual relationships, to develop a just ethic for an all-encompassing ethic of love for heterosexual and homosexual relationships, and to recognize the unique place and perspective of queer persons within the very same ethic.
Using homosexuality as a case example for this paper, and studying from the location of Christianity, the research question complicates to “what is the intersection between sexual identity and Christian identity vis-à-vis homosexuality?” While this study will integrate several insights from psychology on identity formation, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the issue of homosexual identity from a Christian theological perspective.
I survey three approaches to the intersection of homosexual and Christian identity: antithetical, compatible, and integrative. While I hold to an integrative view of Christian sexual identity, I will argue that care must be attended to the person struggling with the relationship between their sexual identity and their Christian identity. I offer several approaches to fostering Christian homosexual identity formation within churches. However, the navigation of the relationship will ultimately have to be situational, even with such preunderstandings.
This paper explores the epistemological undercurrents of the questions posed, unmasking the heteronormativity of the inquiries and proposing a way forward.