Monday, March 19, 2012

Cheng’s new queer Christ book available today


From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ” by Patrick Cheng is in stock and ready to ship starting today at Amazon.com.  I highly recommend it.

Patrick S. Cheng
The much-anticipated book proposes seven new models of sin and grace based on LGBT experience. Cheng is a theology professor at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. A gay Asian American, he also earned a law degree from Harvard. His previous book, Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology comes from from the same publisher, Seabury Books.

Throughout church history, LGBT people have been condemned as sinners for their sexual orientation. As a result, many LGBT people are unable to understand the meaning of grace -- the unmerited gift of God’s love. Cheng argues that people need to be set free from the traditional legal model of sin as a violation of divine and natural laws. Instead he presents a Christologial model in which sin and grace are redefined in liberating terms based on queer experience.

In his new book “From Sin to Amazing Grace,” Cheng develops ideas that he presented here at the Jesus in Love Blog in 2010 with his popular series on “Rethinking Sin and Grace for LGBT People.” At that time Cheng presented five models of a queer Christ:
1) Intro and Erotic Christ (sin as exploitation; grace as mutuality)
2) Out Christ (sin as the closet; grace as coming out)
3) Liberator Christ (sin as apathy; grace as activism)
4) Transgressive Christ (sin as conformity; grace as deviance)
5) Hybrid Christ (sin as singularity; grace as hybridity)

Cheng adds two more queer models in his new book:

Self-Loving Christ (sin as shame; grace as pride)
Interconnected Christ (sin as isolation; grace as interdependence)

I agree with Bible professor Tat-siong Benny Liew when he says, “Cheng’s work ranks among the best scholarship of a new generation of theologians.” I can hardly wait to get my hands on “From Sin to Amazing Grace” to be liberated and inspired by the Cheng’s vision.

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Find it on Amazon.com at this link:
From Sin to Amazing Grace: Discovering the Queer Christ” by Patrick Cheng

4 comments:

Terence Weldon said...

Great news, Kitt. Thanks for the alert.

Kittredge Cherry said...

I look forward to hearing what you think of the book, Terry.

eric said...

Yup, I've been waiting for this for a LONG time! Well, since I first heard it was coming.

Ran out today, found it on B&N and downloaded it! It's about 4 down my list... but can't wait to get to it!

Kittredge Cherry said...

I received my review copy and started reading it today. It’s off to a great start and looks very useful for church classes and discussion groups because each chapter ends with study questions that seem sure to launch lively discussions. Please let me know what you think of the book when you read it.