The letters of Paul are among the most commonly cited biblical texts in ongoing cultural and religious disputes about gender, sexuality, and embodiment. Appalling Bodies reframes these uses of the letters by reaching past Paul toward other, far more fascinating figures that appear before, after, and within the letters. The letters repeat ancient stereotypes about women, eunuchs, slaves, and barbarians--in their Roman imperial setting, each of these overlapping groups were cast as debased, dangerous, and complicated.
Joseph Marchal presents new ways for us to think about these dangers and complications with the help of queer theory. Appalling Bodies juxtaposes these ancient figures against recent figures of gender and sexual variation, in order to defamiliarize and reorient what can be known about both. The connections between the marginalization and stigmatization of these figures troubles the history, ethics, and politics of biblical interpretation. Ultimately, Marchal assembles and reintroduces us to Appalling Bodies from then and now, and the study of Paul's letters may never be the same.
The letters of Paul are among the most commonly cited biblical texts in ongoing cultural and religious disputes about gender, sexuality, and embodiment. Joseph Marchal addresses Paul's letters from the perspective of queer theory and juxtaposes figures from the letters who vary in their gender, sexuality, and embodiment with modern examples in order to defamiliarize and reorient what can be known about both.
Appalling Bodies is a deeply ethical book meant to improve human lives, especially those of the most marginalized among us. Theories can be opaque to general readers, but to show how these theories can make human lives more livable, Marchal explains them clearly. Marchal employs deliberate anachronism to shake up readers' belief that they know what Paul meant, thereby undercutting fundamentalisms. Fundamentalisms are resulting in deaths, whether through hate crimes or suicides, and Marchal understands the urgency of truly alternative biblical interpretation in which marginalized figures become central.
