The Episcopal Church, Homosexuality, and the Context of Technology

Hobson

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781621897408
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The aim of this book is to promote more serious theological discussion in the Church, especially in the mainline Protestant churches and the Episcopal Church, on the issue of homosexuality. George Hobson provides a theological perspective informed by biblical insights, on the one hand, and by analysis of the development and significance of the all-encompassing reality of science-technology, on the other. The question of technology is the determinant issue in the lives of modern men and women, for whom virtually every aspect of daily existence is controlled and oriented by technological imperatives. The central argument of the book is that reflection on the sexual revolution of our day, including the issue of homosexuality, cannot be carried forward effectively without consideration of this context of technology. A constructivist ideology, rooted in our technological power, underlies the fashionable notion that sexual behavior, even gender identity, is entirely culturally determined. Hobson opposes this notion on theological grounds and argues that the liberal disposition in the Protestant churches prevents them from seeing how the authentic Christian gospel is being subverted by this constructivism and the technologically driven quest for total control over every feature of reality that it represents.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I: Technology as the Matrix of Modernity
• Section I: Technology-as-idol is the ultimate expression and vehicle of mankind’s pursuit of autonomy; its aim of auto-salvation, of auto-construction—a New Creation—is a dehumanizing counterfeit of the Gospel that reduces subjects to objects
• Section II: Technological hegemony and the notion of limitless development provide the context for understanding the post-modern challenge—epitomized by gender theory—to the traditional view of sexuality
• Part II: The Question of Homosexuality in the Context of Modernity
• Section III: The impulse of theological liberalism is to adapt the Gospel to the standards of the modern world. Three recent practices in the Episcopal Church related to the question of homosexuality exemplify this impulse and demonstrate doctrinal and pastoral irresponsibility
• Section IV: The biblical opposition to homosexual practice is rooted in the Creation order, founded on the complementarity of man and woman and on the Creator’s high view of the body, sexuality, and marriage. A deficient or defective love and a lack of personal affirmation underlie most cases of homosexual orientation. In Christ are to be found both wholeness and holiness
• Bibliography