Fundamentalism—for our purposes the grounding of faith on certain fundamental principles including the infallibility of scripture—is a recent development. As traditional sources of authority were increasingly challenged by a redefinition of scientific knowledge and the awareness of our own role in defining meaning, some believers reacted by asserting the reliability of revelation as if the words of scripture were themselves scientific data. This kind of biblical literalism characterizes some, but by no means all, Jewish and Christian denominations. The Catholic Church, for its part, regards literalism as a kind of "intellectual suicide," because it absolves the believer from grappling with the historical context of the texts when they were written, and it forecloses the reader's responsibility as a creator of meaning within the interpretive community today. This class is designed out of that insight, rather than out of a literalist framework.
In 2015, we saw a battle over literalism play out in Rowan County, Kentucky, in the wake of the June 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage (Obergefell v. Hodges). In the video to the left, Rowan County clerk Kim Davis speaks to her religious convictions, shaped by personal experience and her apostolic Christian faith tradition, and offers legal
accommodations that could be made to honor them. It is an interesting 6-minute reflection, in her own words, on the conundrum of being caught between two authoritative interpretive communities, legal and religious, and two authoritative texts, the Constitution and the Bible.
We will use the issue of same-sex relations as a trial run into sacred scripture. We're going to approach the key text, Genesis 19 (the story of Sodom and Gomorrah), from two vantage points. The first will be a more literalist reading, which the professor will summarize in class (for an example of this reading, see Samuel Smith, No Saints in Sodom!, Apostolic World Christian Fellowship [n.d.]). The second will be a feminist reading challenging the common modern reading that the men of Sodom were gay. This allows us to explore the notion of the authority of interpretive communities in the construction of meaning—including Sodom's earliest interpreters in the Bible itself.
Here are the questions to take to the readings:
Define for yourself what "homosexual" means (that term is never used in the Bible, as it doesn't exist in Hebrew or Greek; it was invented in the 19th century).
As you read Genesis, make a list of the evidence for and/or against the homosexuality of the men of Sodom.
As you read Toensing, supplement your list with her insights, and then consider whether you agree or disagree with her reading.
Assigned Readings
Primary: Genesis 13-19 (read in the NRSV; cf. Action Bible 48-55)
Secondary: Holly Joan Toensing, "Women of Sodom and Gomorrah: Collateral Damage in the War against Homosexuality?" Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 21:2 (2005) 61-74 (Camino); online class prep
Optional: Idan Dershowitz, "Revealing Nakedness and Concealing Homosexual Intercourse: Legal and Lexical Evolution in Leviticus 18," Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel 6:4 (2017) 510-526
At the time the article we are reading was written, Holly Joan Toensing was an Assistant Professor in the
Theology Department of our sister Jesuit school in Cincinnati, Xavier University. She has also taught at University of the South, College of Wooster, and Colgate. She has published on feminism and the Bible, LGBT issues, and disability studies, and is now a licensed professional counselor in Ohio (with her therapy dog "Chumbee" and active in the American Association of Pastoral Counseling Midwest Region).
Sergio Cariello is a Brazilian-American comic book artist. He's published with major comic book publishers such as Marvel Comics and DC Comics, and recently has been penciling and inking "The Lone Ranger" for Dynamite Entertainment and the "Son of Samson" series for Christian publisher Zondervan.
Witherup, Ronald D. Biblical Fundamentalism: What Every Catholic Should Know. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 2001.
Acknowledgements
Image adapted from one posted by Steve Dunn, "Objective Truth vs Subjective 'Truth,'" –Life Matters Blog (20 May 2012), online, https://sdunnpastor.wordpress.com
/page/20/, accessed 23 July 2015.
Fundamentalism—for our purposes the grounding of faith on certain fundamental principles including the infallibility of scripture—is a recent development. As traditional sources of authority were increasingly challenged by a redefinition of scientific knowledge and the awareness of our own role in defining meaning, some believers reacted by asserting the reliability of revelation as if the words of scripture were themselves scientific data. This kind of biblical literalism characterizes some, but by no means all, Jewish and Christian denominations. The Catholic Church, for its part, regards literalism as a kind of "intellectual suicide," because it absolves the believer from grappling with the historical context of the texts when they were written, and it forecloses the reader's responsibility as a creator of meaning within the interpretive community today. This class is designed out of that insight, rather than out of a literalist framework.
