There is a huge need for churches to be more inclusive – some might be more inclusive in some areas than others (both in attitude and resources), but on the whole this is a massive failing of churches. Most church leaders recognise this failing but lack the resources and understanding to effect meaningful change. The Inclusive Church Resources aim to educate, to reflect theologically and to provide practical advice and guidance. Each book contains first-hand personal experiences of people ...

Structural Sin and the Death of Institutions explores how Christian understandings of sin map onto institutional failures. It argues that institutions frequently create conditions in which individuals are disempowered and disposed to sin, and that uncritical appeals to redemption, reconciliation and restoration perpetuate harm. The book engages the turn to despair, abolition and termination in recent theologies, and builds on work by those working in other fields including the pen...

Some Christians are anxious and uncomfortable about gender diversity and transition. Sometimes, they understand these issues as a rejection of God's intention for creation. Gender diversity has also been assumed to entail self-deception, mental ill-health, and dysphoria. Yet, humans are inherently transformative creatures with a vocation to shape their own worlds and traditions. Transformative creaturely theology recognizes the capacity of gender to shape humans even as we also question it...

Mainstream Christian theology has valued the integrity of the body and the goodness of God reflected in creation. However, it has also asserted the complementarity of "normal" male and female physiology. Sex and Uncertainty in the Body of Christ offers the first systematic theology of the intersexed body.The book analyzes the theological implications of physical intersex conditions and their medical treatment. The medical assumption of what constitutes male and female bodi...

Through engagement with theologies of adoption, pro-natalism, marriage, and queer theology, Susannah Cornwall figures developments in models of marriage and family not as distortions of or divergences from the divinely-ordained blueprint, but as developments already of a piece with these institution's being.Much Christian theological discussion of family, sex and marriage seems to claim that they are (or should be) unchanging and immaculate; that to celebrate their shifting and dev...

Intersex bodies have been figured as troubling by doctors, parents, religious institutions and society at large. In this book, scholars draw on constructive and pastoral theologies, biblical studies, and sociology, suggesting intersex's capacity to 'trouble' is positive, challenging unquestioned norms and assumptions in religion and beyond.

There remains a lack of knowledge and understanding about trans people in the church, and trans people who are religious can experience bias in their faith communities. With the help of their many years of experience working with trans people negotiating their relationships with religious institutions, the authors (one of whom is trans) have created this accessible, valuable guide that will educate and improve churches' relationship with trans people.Combining first-hand interviews...

Is it possible to be both gay and Christian? This book explains, calmly and logically, that the two are not mutually exclusive. With the support of some of the finest scientific and theological minds, Dr Stuart Edser presents a compelling case for tolerance and acceptance, rejecting the traditional Christian view that gay people are either sick or sinful as a result of their sexual orientation. While shrill voices of prejudiced fundamentalism are raised from all sides of the Christian chur...

All are made in the image and likeness of God. If this is what we believe, then trans people, like all people, reflect something of God, and not just in the ways that they share in common with others, but also in the ways that they are different. They remind us that God is beyond all of our categories, even gender. In this book, Tara Soughers explores theology from the position of a trans ally—a parent of a trans young adult as well as priest. What does it mean about God and about humans, ...

Why the call to Love Thy Body? To counter a pervasive hostility toward the body and biology that drives today's headline stories:● Transgenderism: Activists detach gender from biology. Kids down to kindergarten are being taught their body is irrelevant to their authentic self. Is this affirming--or does it demean the body?● Homosexuality: Advocates disconnect sexuality from biological identity as m...

Through a series of essays contributed by leading experts in the field, The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Practical Theology presents an introduction to practical theology as a major area of Christian study and practice, including an overview of its key developments, themes, methods, and future directions.The first comprehensive reference work to provide a survey, description and analysis of practical theology as an area of studyA range of leading scholars i...

A resource for ministers and congregations who want to begin to understand and/or welcome transgender people into their congregations. The book has the following aims: to give the results of the first research based project into the experiences of trans Christians in the UK; to provide a theological and biblical framework by which ministers and congregations can begin to appreciate transgender people's perspectives; to provide a series of insights that inform the pastoral care of transgend...