Queer Theology
🌈 What is Queer Theology?
A celebration of LGBTQ+ lives, faith, and radical love.
Exploring the divine beyond binaries, boundaries, and the status quo.
What is Queer Theology?
Queer theology is where the rainbow meets the sacred. It’s a field that brings together queer theory and theology, asking: What if God is bigger, queerer, and more loving than we ever imagined? It’s about reading the Bible and doing theology in ways that affirm LGBTQ+ lives, love, and bodies.
— Linn Marie Tonstad, Queer Theology
What is Queer Theory?
Queer theory is an academic movement that questions and resists the idea that there’s only one “right” way to be. It’s about breaking open boxes around gender, sexuality, and identity—embracing fluidity, difference, and resistance to the norm.
— David Halperin, Saint Foucault
To “Queer” Theology
To “queer” theology is to turn it upside down and inside out. It’s not just about making space for LGBTQ+ people—it’s about challenging the very foundations of what’s considered “normal” or “holy.” It’s playful, subversive, and deeply spiritual.
— Patrick Cheng, Radical Love
Queer Theology in Practice
In practice, queer theology is as diverse as the LGBTQ+ community itself. It can be playful, radical, and even shocking—like the court jester or the wild joy of Mardi Gras. It’s about finding God in drag, in protest, in love, and in every body.
— Marcella Althaus-Reid, The Queer God
Learn More & Go Deeper
Want to study queer theology? Check out Queer Theology at Pilgrim Theological College for courses and resources.
- Tonstad, Linn Marie. Queer Theology. Cascade Books, 2018.
- Cheng, Patrick. Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology. Seabury Books, 2011.
- Halperin, David. Saint Foucault: Towards a Gay Hagiography. Oxford University Press, 1995.
- Jagose, Annamarie. Queer Theory: An Introduction, New York University Press, 1996.
- Butler, Judith. “Against Proper Objects,” differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 6.2+3 (1994).
- Rubin, Gayle. “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality,” Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality, ed. Vance, Carole. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984.
- Warner, Michael. The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life, Harvard University Press, 1999.
- Althaus-Reid, Marcella. The Queer God, Routledge, 2003.
- Schneider, Laurel C. “Homosexuality, Queer Theory, and Christian Theology,” Men and Masculinities in Christianity and Judaism: A Critical Reader, ed. Krondorfer, Björn. SCM Press, 2009.