Santa Clara Lecture

October 12, 2017 | 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Music Recital Hall

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Intersex and transgender have received increasing attention in the media and public discourse over the last decade, but are still under-examined theologically. This lecture highlights some implications of variant sex and gender for Christian theology and pastoral care, and explores the challenges and benefits of ensuring appropriate spiritual care for transgender and intersex people.

Susannah Cornwall is Advanced Research Fellow in Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter, UK, and Director of EXCEPT (Exeter Centre for Ethics and Practical Theology). She is the author of several books including Sex and Uncertainty in the Body of Christ: Intersex Conditions and Christian Theology (2010); Controversies in Queer Theology (2011); and Theology and Sexuality (2013). Her newest monograph, Un/familiar Theology: Reconceiving Sex, Reproduction and Generativity is forthcoming from Bloomsbury T&T Clark. Her edited collections include Intersex, Theology, and the Bible: Troubling Bodies in Church, Text, and Society (2015), and (with John Bradbury) Thinking Again About Marriage: Key Theological Questions (2016). Her current research project, funded by the Sir Halley Stewart Trust, in partnership with the West of England NHS Specialist Gender Identity Clinic, explores spiritual care pathways for people undergoing gender transition in the National Health Service in England.

Respondent: Fr. Bill O’Neill, S.J. is Associate Professor of Social Ethics at the Jesuit School of Theology, Santa Clara University. His writings address questions of human rights, ethics,hermeneutical theory, social reconciliation, conflict resolution, and refugee policy. He has worked with refugees in Tanzania and Malawi and has done research on human rights in South Africa and Rwanda. He also serves as Catholic Chaplain at the Federal Woman’s Prison in Dublin, CA and is a member of the Anglican/Roman Catholic Dialogue.