Abstract
Susannah Cornwall,
Theology and Sexuality
, SCM Core Text, SCM Press: London, 2013; 195 pp.: 9780334045304, £25.00 (pbk)
As part of the Core Text series for SCM Press the purpose of the book is to introduce readers to topics that come together under the title sexuality and theology. This book achieves that end very well in that it covers a range of topics with clarity and sufficient information to engage readers but not to baffle them. The topics chosen for inclusion are for the most part those that the churches and believers are concerned about. However, Cornwall has taken the opportunity to widen the debates with the inclusion of intersex, a topic coming to the fore in church discussions, and mention of BDSM and paid sex work, topics not often examined. She does not hold back from asking whether Christianity is healthy for queer people, once again a question not often asked by churches themselves.
What will I hope prove very useful for readers is the first chapter in which sex is placed in context through an examination of how we understand it and what cultural influences have come to bear in that understanding. Although the sections are by necessity brief they do capture the heart of various understandings and give Christian readers a way in which to question their own, perhaps fixed, notions of sex and gender.
I find the inclusion of questions around sex after death interesting and the new word ‘sexchatological’ is delightful. For me the inclusion highlights that Christians can no longer believe that sex is a defect in nature that will pass away once bound for heaven. This is perhaps the section I personally had most theological problems with but nonetheless, as mentioned, it plays an important part.
The questions for study and reflection at the end of each chapter are well thought out and help to lead the reader or the group to deeper engagement with the topics. The activities also encourage deeper reflection and consideration. For those who are anxious to know more the bibliography is extensive with, from my point of view, a few notable exceptions.
Cornwall demonstrates an even hand throughout and, as she states, her task is not to answer questions or to deem certain actions acceptable and others not but rather to place information before readers. This she does with skill.
There is no doubt that a book such as this is needed and this is where my criticism comes – not of the author but of the churches that still need debates and scholarly reading on topics such as masturbation, same-sex relations and premarital relationships. It seems the secular world has matured a little quicker than churches when it comes to these matters of human sexuality. This is of course not to say that the complex nature of human sexuality does not need theological reflection, it certainly does if only to move theology on to an enfleshed incarnational understanding of the divine in flesh.