New book on Intersex/DSD and Christian Theology

[SusannahCornwall]

Dear Bodies Like Ours members,

You may be interested to learn that Equinox Press (UK) have just published my book, Sex and Uncertainty in the Body of Christ: Intersex Conditions and Christian Theology.

This book is based on my 2007 PhD thesis, and is a full-length examination of the implications of intersex/DSD for Christian theology. In particular, it sets out to challenge heteronormative and essentialist understandings of human sex, gender and sexuality.

It includes reflection on the debates over intersex and DSD terminology, and would be of interest to anyone concerned about how religion has reinforced narrow understandings of sex, gender and sexuality, or about if and how religious faith and intersex/DSD identity can co-exist.

US publication is scheduled for 2011; in the meantime, it is available for purchase from Amazon.co.uk.

I would be happy to receive any correspondence, questions or comments about the book, either by e-mail or via my web page, susannahcornwall DOT blogspot DOT com

With many thanks, and all good wishes for the ongoing work you are doing.

Yours faithfully,

Susannah Cornwall

Honorary Research Fellow
Department of Theology and Religion
College of Humanities
University of Exeter, UK

[XXYGuy]

That's pretty interesting, have you considered selling a digitial version?

[imysworld]

Hello Susannah Cornwall

I know this is an odd question but are you in Cornwall, uk?

[uriela]

Wonder what Mary Daly would have thought of this. Did you go over her material for the book?

[Kailana]

Book is available in the states through Amazon.com $90.00 listed price for new.

[SusannahCornwall]

Kailana, thanks for pointing that out. A US edition is due for publication later this year (I don't have an exact date, but probably early summer), and I hope that will be less expensive for North American readers to access.

XXYGuy, there are no plans for a digitized version as yet. However, I hope there will be a preview available on Google Books in due course.

imysworld, no, I am based at the University of Exeter in Devon, which is not far from Cornwall but is a different county. I do have family in Cornwall, but on my husband's side (who has a different surname), not mine!

uriela, I don't explicitly engage with Mary Daly's work in the book, but of course, I am familiar with it. Although her work in Beyond God the Father in particular is really important in terms of overcoming androcentrism and the idea that God is male, I find her views on transgender extremely stigmatizing and unhelpful. Were there any particular aspects of her work you were thinking of?

Thank you all for your interest.

[petra]

Susannah,
I just purchased copy through Borders. Granted, it is in paperback, but the price is $29.95 US; excluding shipping and tax.

[uriela]

Were there any particular aspects of her work you were thinking of?

No, but, given the topic I thought you would have researched her work.

I had run across that one particular passage (In Beyond God the Father pr Gyn/Ecology, I don't remember which, but are the only two books I have of hers) that concurs with Janice Raymond that transwomen are really men and can be nothing but. However, I was telling my story before a state NOW convention and, when I made a comment about Daly, expecting the worst about my presentation, one of the members said that she had changed her view on that. However, when I had reached that passage I shelved Daly's books in disgust. The comment of the member of the audience, however, gave me pause. I had felt that the other comments in Daly's books had struck chords with me, so she mellowed my feelings about Mary Daly.

So, I started re-reading Beyond God the Father and found my views corresponded well with hers and were enlightening. That book of course was written during a period when feminism had become generally extremely anti-male and information about transsexualism was extremely scanty and often bizarre, certainly sensational.

However, her expose' of the patriarchy and how pervasive the masculization of religion is, made me wonder how I could possibly have bought into it. I am now an ex-catholic and can scarcely honestly participate in mass at all. The current pope's views are certainly anti-trans. However, when he said that sex cannot be changed and, since I have identified as female as long as I can remember, I tend to agree to a point. However, I would not deny that there can be fluidity in sex, even if my "fluidity" was more in the manner of coping.

From your comments I would not doubt that some of her thinking was incorporated in your book, even if you did not quote her.

You do know that Mary died this past year.

[imysworld]

Kailana, thanks for pointing that out. A US edition is due for publication later this year (I don't have an exact date, but probably early summer), and I hope that will be less expensive for North American readers to access.

XXYGuy, there are no plans for a digitized version as yet. However, I hope there will be a preview available on Google Books in due course.

imysworld, no, I am based at the University of Exeter in Devon, which is not far from Cornwall but is a different county. I do have family in Cornwall, but on my husband's side (who has a different surname), not mine!

uriela, I don't explicitly engage with Mary Daly's work in the book, but of course, I am familiar with it. Although her work in Beyond God the Father in particular is really important in terms of overcoming androcentrism and the idea that God is male, I find her views on transgender extremely stigmatizing and unhelpful. Were there any particular aspects of her work you were thinking of?

Thank you all for your interest.

I know where Exeter is, im down in cornwall, just supprised to see someone else from cornwall on here, thanks for replying :) xx