Lexington Books
Pages: 152
•
Trim: 6½ x 9⅛
978-1-7936-0609-9 • Hardback • May 2020 • $90.00 • (£69.00)
978-1-7936-0610-5 • eBook • May 2020 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Cody J. Sanders is American Baptist chaplain to Harvard University, advisor for LGBTQ+ affairs in the Office of Religious, Spiritual, and Ethical Life at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and pastor to Old Cambridge Baptist Church, Cambridge, MA.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1God, Stories, and Queer Souls
Chapter 2Troubled Stories, Best Hopes, Precarious Survival
Chapter 3Theological Ambush
Chapter 4Soul Violence
Chapter 5Religious Resistance
Chapter 6Holding One’s Own
Chapter 7Revisioning the Care of Souls
Conclusion Constructive Lessons for Practices of Care
Bibliography
About the Author
Sanders (a Baptist minister associated with both Harvard and MIT) makes a substantial contribution to conversations around LGBTQ people and pastoral care. This book grows out of a research study he completed in which he interviewed nine LGBTQ individuals “for whom life at one time or another came to seem unlivable" (p. 6). Sanders writes that many of his participants "voiced a desire to help churches to become safer, more life-giving places for LGBTQ people" (p. 29). The book focuses on bringing the narratives of these nine participants “into conversation with the literature of philosophy, theology, psychology, and varied other disciplines.” Sanders covers a lot of terrain in helping his communities understand why LGBTQ people consider or attempt suicide. A necessary resource for scholars of religion, divinity students, and students of social work, this book will help those working in pastoral or social contexts better support and affirm the lives of LGBTQ people. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, and professionals.
— CHOICE
Sanders’ research expertly uncovers a narrative and theological account of suicide as a social phenomenon and bodily manifestation of “soul violence.” Sanders also corrects social scientific and psychological literature by highlighting competing theological narratives and their intensifying and constituting functions. Part of the “Emerging Perspectives in Pastoral Theology and Care” series through Lexington Books, Christianity, LGBTQ Suicide, and the Souls of Queer Folkoffers major contributions to the ways we engage narratives, care for suicide survivors, and imagine practices of resistance and resilience. For the queer person seeking agency, for the caregiver and faith community seeking interventions, for the theologian and psychologist seeking new queer metaphors, this work brilliantly offers a multiplicity of lessons, insights, and practices.
— Theology & Sexuality
Cody J. Sanders offers a close look at the role of Christian narratives in the lives of nine LGBTQ people who have attempted suicide and survived. . . . Sanders encourages churches to acknowledge publicly the soul violence that has been done to queer people, as well as to cultivate the capacity for the religious resistance and theological imagination that can help support the livability of life for queer souls.
— The Christian Century
Listening carefully and closely to the complex stories told by and about queer folks, Rev. Dr. Cody J. Sanders speaks truthfully about matters of life and death for LGBTQ individuals. Caregivers, communities of faith, and individuals are invited to join queer folk as they resist violence to soul and body, and seek substantive ways to construct a flourishing life. Rev. Dr. Sanders' theological analysis is provocative and welcome as he points toward concrete practices and interventions for walking alongside Christian queer folks.— Joretta Marshall, Brite Divinity School
I highly and enthusiastically recommend Christianity, LGBTQ Suicide, and the Souls of Queer Folk. Author Cody Sanders delivers on their promise to offer “guidance in reforming our religious practices in ways that promote the livability of life for LGBTQ people.” For pastoral caregivers—and anyone else, in fact—who is concerned about the souls and lives of queer folk, this book is an indispensable resource.— Bernard Schlager, Pacific School of Religion