CLGS

Until her untimely death in February, 2009, Marcella Althaus-Reid was a leading Latin American feminist liberation theologian, probably best known for her pioneering work in using “queer theory” for Christian theology.

Marcella Althaus-Reid was born in Rosario, Argentina and received her first degree through a world-renowned center in Buenos Aires for the study of liberation theology in Latin America. She earned her PhD in 1994 from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and eventually became professor of contextual theology at the Divinity School of the University of Edinburgh.

Prior to that academic position, Professor Althaus-Reid trained for the ministry of the Methodist Church of Argentina, where she also developed expertise in the method of “conscientization,” pioneered by the Brazilian educator and activist Paulo Freire. She put that training to use in social and community projects supported by the church in particularly poverty-stricken areas of Buenos Aires. She later established similar projects in Dundee and Perth (Scotland).

Her first book, Indecent Theology (2000), quickly raised her profile throughout the theological world, and with the publication of The Queer God (2004), she was on the forefront of a brand new, exciting, as well as controversial field in the academic study of theology.

To honor Professor Althaus-Reid’s pioneering spirit and to encourage even more work at the intersection of scholarship and advocacy, CLGS inaugurated an annual award in her name for the best student essay in queering religion and theology. This award is open to any student enrolled at one of the member schools of the Graduate Theological Union and is awarded at the commencement exercises of Pacific School of Religion. Nominations are made by both regular and adjunct faculty members throughout the GTU. For more information on the award, contact Jay Johnson (jjohnson[at]clgs[dot]org).

Inaugural Marcella Althaus-Reid Award: 2009

Among the fine nominations made for the award, CLGS was finally unable to choose between two of them. In the spirit of Althaus-Reid's queering of the expected, the Center decided to make a joint award to two students for their excellent essays.

1. "A Proposal for a Catholic Lesbian Feminist Theology in Hong Kong," by Lai Shan Yip (a candidate for the Master of Arts degree in ethics and social theory, and the recipient of the Certificate of Sexuality and Religion).This essay placed both sexuality and religion firmly in the cultural context of Hong Kong, especially among Roman Catholics, and foregrounding issues of gender in a feminist and liberation perspective. Both the attention to particular social contexts and the feminist commitments resonanted well with the theological vision of Professor Althaus-Reid's work.

2. "The Living End: Science Fiction Queers Resurrection Theology," by Victor H. Floyd (a candidate for ordination in the Metropolitan Community Churches and recipient of the Master of Divinity Degree from PSR, 2009).This essay focused on the intersection of themes in Christian theology (eschatology generally and notions of resurrection in particular) and American popular culture, especially science fiction. Pop culture images destablize traditional theological claims while also helping to retrieve a richer appropriation of Christian faith for contemporary society. Professor Althaus-Reid would have appreciated the emphasis on pop culture (including its campy elements) and the queer retrieval of Christian traditions.

The Second Annual Marcella Althaus-Reid Award: 2010

"The Audacity to Remain Single: The Single Black Woman and the Black Church," by Kuukua Dzigbordi Yomekpe (recipient of the Master of Theological Studies degree and Certificate of Sexuality and Religion). This essay/project analyzed the various cultural and religious intersections exhibited by the Single Black Woman in the Black Church and how, through the lens offered by those intersections, a theological analysis of sexuality might appear more clearly in African American contexts. The essay component analyzed a number of films as a means to discern how the sexuality of black women is portrayed culturally; for the project portion, a "roundtable" of American American women discussed their own experiences of how both culture and religion shaped their sense of sexuality, marriage, and singleness. Professor Althaus-Reid would have appreciated the multiple layers of identity -- racial, religious, sexual, gender, relationship status -- running throughout this project.