Trans/formations

Transsexual, transgendered and intersex people have become increasingly more visible since the 1990s, but the churches have been slow to recognize their lives and their contribution to theology and the churches. As theologians we are mystified by this, since a redemptive history based on the multiple possibilities of incarnational theology is best read as lived in trans/luminal spaces. Trans/formations is a passionate book borne out of the outrage felt at the ever narrowing boundaries of theology. It is passionate too because it comes from a deeply held incarnational belief that dares to take the lived experience of people seriously as part of the redemptive ground we share. It is a book that wishes to shake not shock, it seeks to shake us out of the contented narrowness of a cosy Christianity and into one that seeks always to expand the incarnational tent that is our home. The contributors ask questions not only of the churches and theology but at times also of gender and sexuality theorists. It is time we all thought anew, and this book hopes to aid that debate. Lisa Isherwood is Professor of Feminist Liberation Theologies at the University of Winchester. Marcella Althaus-Reid was Professor of Contextual Theology at New College, Edinburgh. She died in February 2009. Contributors: Marcella Althaus-Reid, Hannah Buchanan, Krys Bujnowski, Marie Cartier, John Clifford, Susannah Cornwall, Malcolm Himschoot, BK Hipsher, Lisa Isherwood, Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, Lewis Reay, Elizabeth Stuart and Sian Taylder.