• DOI:10.1080/13558358.2017.1341214
• Corpus ID: 171799673

Jean-Luc Marion: the reinscription of heteronormativity into postmodern theology

@article{Pearl2017JeanLucMT,
  title={Jean-Luc Marion: the reinscription of heteronormativity into postmodern theology},
  author={J. Leavitt Pearl},
  journal={Theology \& Sexuality},
  year={2017},
  volume={23},
  pages={144 - 163}
}

• J. Pearl
• Published 4 May 2017
• Philosophy
• Theology & Sexuality

ABSTRACT Since the “theological turn” in continental philosophy, theologians have regularly turned to phenomenology as an authentic opening to a new mode of theological discourse. Yet, when these theo-phenomenological discourses turn to the questions of sexuality, gender, and love they often fail to live up to the radical opening promised by this turn. Taken as a case study, the work of Jean-Luc Marion is emblematic of this failure. While many of his insights might offer new openings for theological thought, his phenomenological speculations nonetheless often merely serve to re-inscribe a traditional, even reactionary heteronormativity into the heart of postmodern theological thought. In fact, it is not uncommon to catch his work offering a denigration of the body, presupposing a determinately male subject, and foreclosing the very possibility of non-heterosexual love. This critical examination of Marion’s account of sexuality shows that even the most radical phenomenological theology needs the ideological interruption of queer theory.