Methodology

 in  the  Study  of  Religion,  Sexuality  and  Spirituality  

 
Carole  M.  Cusack  
University  of  Sydney  
 
Introduction  
The  first  volume  of  Religion,  Sexuality  and  Spirituality  concerns  the  theories  and  
analytic  tools  that  the  academy  uses  to  study  the  manifold  intersections  between  
religion,  sexuality  and  spirituality.  The  field  encompassed  by  Religion,  Sexuality  
and  Spirituality  is  a  vast,  and  controversial,  one.  It  encompasses  both  normative  
and  non-­‐normative  sexual  identities,  roles,  and  actions  in  the  so-­‐called  ‘world  
religions’  (Judaism,  Christianity,  Islam,  Buddhism,  and  Hinduism),  and  also  in  
smaller  long-­‐established  traditions  (for  example,  Sikhism).  These  modes  of  being  
and  conduct  are  also  explored  in  the  multitudinous  indigenous  religions,  new  
religions,  and  spiritualities  of  the  world  (Brunn  2015).  The  chapters  collected  
here  include  classic  pieces  that  remains  relevant  to  contemporary  research,  
work  that  is  little-­‐known  and  deserve  a  larger  audience,  and  The  methodologies  
that  are  utilised  herein  are  multi-­‐disciplinary,  and  include  perspectives  from  
religious  studies,  cultural  studies,  cultural  history,  sociology,  history,  psychology,  
theology,  and  a  range  of  other  disciplines  such  as  human  geography,  planning,  
law,  health  and  environmental  studies.    
 
The  field  of  religion,  spirituality  and  sexuality  is  controversial  for  three  reasons.  
First,  it  is  often  misunderstood  by  devout  religious  people  who  are  offended  by  
the  intimate  and  taboo  nature  of  the  subjects  under  investigation.  Second,  it  is  a  
challenge  for  secular  scholars,  particularly  those  who  advocate  the  liberation  of  
sexuality  from  all  forms  of  religion  and  spirituality,  which  typically  are  regarded  
as  oppressive  and  retrograde.  Third,  the  body,  sexuality  and  religion  are  usually  
treated  in  a  prurient  manner  in  public  discourses  such  as  news  media  and  print  
journalism.  In  recent  years  original  and  innovative  scholarship  has  flowered  in  
this  area  (Hunt  2010;  Hunt  and  Yip  2012),  and  while  by  no  means  a  mainstream  
research  area  in  the  discipline  of  Religious  Studies,  sexuality  is  gradually  taking  a  
more  prominent  place  in  the  field.  In  the  academic  fields  of  gender  and  sexuality  
studies,  however,  religion  has  been  slower  to  gain  traction,  apart  from  feminist  
scholarship  in  Judaism  and  Christianity  (Juschka  2001).  
 
Theorising  Sex  and  Spirituality  
The  first  chapter,  Claudio  Bardella’s  ‘Queer  Spirituality’  (2001),  is  a  classic  text  
that  identifies  a  kinship  between  the  term  ‘queer’  (which  was  displaced  in  the  
1970s  by  ‘gay’,  but  resurfaced  in  the  1990s)  and  ‘liberation  theology’,  and  
sketches  a  new  kind  of  approach  to  the  Bible,  to  the  history  of  Christianity,  a  
‘queer  theology’  that  recovers  the  stories  of  figures  like  Aelred  of  Rievaulx.  
Aelred,  a  twelfth-­‐century  abbot,  allowed  ‘the  development  of  “particular  
friendships”  among  his  monks  who,  within  the  limitations  of  celibacy  vows,  were  
encouraged  to  physically  express  their  affection  for  each  other’  (Bardella  2001:  
124).  Queer  theology  potentially  transforms  religion.  What  Bardella  terms  ‘Gay  
Soul’  is  a  parallel  phenomenon  at  work  within  spirituality,  with  the  shaman  as  
role  model.  He  reviews  the  essentialist  and  constructionist  approaches  to  gay  
identity,  and  concludes  that  Queer  Spiritual  Discourse  understands  gay  identity  
to  ‘entails  the  embodiment  of  an  “otherness”  that  constitutes  not  the  object  of  
xenophobic  terror  but  the  infinite  potentiality  for  the  creation  of  originality  and  
beauty’  (Bardella  2001:  133).  

The  second  chapter,  Eric  M.  Rodriguez’s  ‘At  the  Intersection  of  Church  and  Gay:  A  
Review  of  Psychological  Research  on  Gay  and  Lesbian  Christians’  (2009),  moves  from  
theoretical  reflection  to  the  complex  lived  reality  that  the  paradoxical  dual  identification  
as  gay  and  Christian  results  in.  Psychologists  identify  both  extrinsic  and  intrinsic  ‘causes  
of  conflict  and  anxiety  between  gay  and  religious  identities’  (Rodriguez  2009:  10).  
Common  psychological  concepts  and  models  used  to  study  gays  and  lesbians  include  
cognitive  dissonance,  stigma,  and  identity  conflict,  all  of  which  Rodriguez  rejects  
because  they  focus  on  fragmentation,  rather  than  ‘the  process  of  identity  integration’  …  
which  is  a  spiritual  journey  that  leads  to  empowerment  (Rodriguez  2009:  18).  
 
The  next  chapter,  ‘Is  There  a  [M]other  in  the  Text:  Post-­‐Theistic  Sikh  Ontology  and  the  
Question  of  the  Phallus’  (2011)  by  Sian  Hawthorne,  is  in  dialogue  with  Arvind  Mandair’s  
Religion  and  the  Specter  of  the  West:  Sikhism,  India,  Postcoloniality  and  the  Politics  of  
Translation  (2009).  Mandair’s  book  interrogated  the  way  that  the  Western  colonialist  
presence  in  India  profoundly  altered  the  status  of  the  ‘religions’  of  the  subcontinent  (a  
concept  that  did  not  exist  in  the  languages  or  cultures  of  India  prior  to  Western  contact),  
and  religionised  scriptures  through  translation  projects.  He  is  concerned  to  recover  a  
Sikh  secularity  not  dependent  on  the  West,  and  to  do  this  reads  Guru  Nanak’s  teachings  
against  the  grain,  effectively  negating  the  nineteenth  century  religionist,  Singh  Sabha  
(Mandair  2009).  Hawthorne  takes  issue  with  Mandair’s  use  of  Lacan,  partly  because  to  
dismantle  the  Western  impact  using  Western  scholarship  is  a  contradiction  in  terms,  
and  also  because  of  Lacans  ‘brutal  denial  of  female  subjectivity’  (Hawthorne  2011:  174).  
 
In  the  next  chapter,  Momin  Rahman’s  ‘Queer  as  Intersectionality:  Theorizing  Gay  
Muslim  Identities’  (2010),  the  Muslim  religious  identity  is  understood  in  certain  
ways  to  be  antithetical  to  Western  values,  including  tolerance  of  homosexuality.  
Rahman’s  estimate  is  that  ‘gay  Muslims  occupy  an  intersectional  social  location  
between  political  and  social  cultures,  and  that  they  suffer  oppression  through  
this  position’  (2010:  945).  Using  queer  theory  he  proposes  that  the  gay  Muslim  
identity  is  ‘impossible’  and  stands  as  a  challenge  to  all  normative  expectations.  

Re/Reading  Religions  
The  next  seven  chapters  focus  in  the  main  on  established  religious  traditions  
Thomas  B.  Ellis  ‘Disgusting  Bodies,  Disgusting  Religion:  The  Biology  of  Tantra’  
(2011)  is  a  controversial  study  that  attempts  to  take  the  study  of  Tantra  from  a  
primarily  descriptive  form  to  one  that  explains  its  disgusting  and  transgressive  
sexual  practices.  He  argues  that  Tantra  is  ‘positively  maladaptive’  and  promotes  
beliefs  and  behaviours  biologically  offensive  to  the  naturally  selective  human  
body’  (Ellis  2011:  882).  He  acknowledges  that  most  religions  praise  tranquillity  
and  peace,  but  reminds  readers  that  is  a  reaction  to  the  ‘disgusting  realities  of  
temporal,  corporeal,  and  ultimately  biological  life’  (Ellis  2011:  889).  The  sixth  
chapter,  Jerome  Gellman’s  ‘Gender  and  Sexuality  in  the  Garden  of  Eden’  (2006)  
covers  feminist  re-­‐interpretations  of  the  story  of  the  expulsion  from  Paradise  in  
Genesis  2-­‐3.    
 
Roger  Corless’  interesting  ‘Towards  a  Queer  Dharmology  of  Sex’  (2004)  analyses  
the  vinaya  or  monastic  rules,  which  enforce  radical  celibacy  and  offer  detailed  
rules  about  sex  (or  the  lack  thereof)  of  monastics.  There  is  less  information  in  
Buddhist  texts  about  sex  among  the  lay  community.  After  comparing  Buddhist  
attitudes  to  Christian  negotiations  of  gay  and  lesbian  identities,  Corless  explores  
ways  to  ‘queer’  the  dharma,  concluding  that  ‘the  celibate  who  is  in  touch  with  his  
/her  queer  consciousness  (whether  he/she  self-­‐identifies  as  lesbian,  gay,  
bisexual,  or  plain  old  heterosexual),  is  existentially  in  touch  with  the  Dharma,  
which  is  neither  male  nor  female.  Not  only  the  Buddha  Nature,  but  also  the  
Dharma,  is  queer’  (Corless  2004:  240).  
 
Judith  Butler’s  ‘Sexual  Politics,  Torture,  and  Secular  Time’  (2008)  investigates  
‘secular  conceptions  of  history’  that  propose  a  certain  type  of  freedom,  and  asks  
how  these  things  impact  on  Islam,  particularly  ‘cultural  assaults  on  Islam’  that  
really  just  affirm  American  dominance  (Butler  2008:  3).  She  asks  whether  it  is  
possible  for  apparently  contradictory  struggles  for  freedom  to  be  resolved,  or  
whether  one  discourse  must  always  dominate  and  obliterate  the  other(s).  Next  is  
Sarah  Barringer  Gordon’s  ‘A  War  of  Words:  Revelation  and  Storytelling  in  the  
Campaign  Against  Mormon  Polygamy’  (2003)  is  an  examination  of  a  new  idea,  
plural  marriage,  in  a  new  religion,  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-­‐day  Saints,  
founded  by  Joseph  Smith,  who  allegedly  received  a  ‘Revelation  on  Celestial  
Marriage’  in  1843  (Gordon  2003:  741).  Mormon  polygamy  in  the  nineteenth  
century  was  a  prolonged  scandal,  and  it  was  officially  abandoned  in  1890,  after  a  
war  of  words  that  Gordon  surveys.    Next  is  Ludger  H.  Viefhues-­‐Bailey.  ‘Holiness  
Sex:  Conservative  Christian  Sex  Practices  as  Acts  of  Sanctification’  (2012),  a  
study  of  the  importance  of  sex  in  conservative  Evangelical  Christianity,  with  
particular  reference  to  the  marriage  manual  genre.  These  manuals  contain  ideas  
like  the  desirability  of  mutually  orgasmic  sex,  the  male  and  female  bodies  as  sites  
to  be  disciplined  so  that  orgasmic  sex  is  possible,  and  that  Christian  heterosexual  
sex  is  natural  and  God’s  blessing.    
 
The  last  chapter  in  this  section  is  Mark  Jordan’s  ‘  “Both  as  a  Christian  and  as  a  
Historian”:  On  Boswell’s  Ministry’  (2006),  a  selection  that  is  doubly  important  
because  of  the  pivotal  role  that  John  Boswell  played  in  bringing  the  Christian  
religion  into  dialogue  with  same-­‐sex  relationships.  Boswell  was  often  more  
popular  with  the  Christian  groups  he  visited  and  addressed  than  he  was  with  
academic  critics,  who  decried  him  as  the  ‘leader  –  or  poster  boy  –  of  “essentialist”  
gay  historians’  (Jordan  2006:  89).  Jordan  sympathetically  unpacks  Boswell’s  
inner  contradictions;  his  reluctance  to  theorise  his  historical  research  on  same-­‐
sex  unions,  his  increasingly  pastoral  role  toward  gay  and  lesbian  Christians,  and  
the  partial  failure  of  his  attempts  to  sequester  faith  from  the  physical  act  of  sex,  
by  rendering  both  private,  ‘confessional  matter[s]’  (2006:  102).      
 
Studying  Sexuality  and  Spirituality  
The  section  opens  with  Sarah  Pike’s  ‘Rationalizing  the  Margins:  A  Review  of  
Legitimation  and  Ethnographic  Practices  in  Scholarly  Research  on  Neo-­‐
Paganism’  (1996),  an  important  contribution  to  the  study  of  modern  Paganism  
(or  Neo-­‐Paganism),  as  it  challenges  the  presumption  of  irrationality  that  scholars  
studying  Pagans  applied  to  the  ‘beliefs’  of  their  research  subjects.  Pike  traces  the  
academic  trajectory  from  the  early  1970s  when  pioneers  such  as  Edward  
Tiryakian  and  Marcello  Truzzi  pioneered  the  study  of  ‘occult’  groups  (1996:  
356),  noting  that  many  important  issues  were  not  addressed  until  the  1980s  
when  ethnographic  studies  began  to  be  conducted.  Pike  argues  that  scholars  
tended  to  approach  Witchcraft  and  Paganism  with  a  ‘defensive  agenda’,  and  that  
this  was  not  significantly  challenged  until  insiders  like  Margot  Adler  began  doing  
ethnography  among  fellow  Pagans  (1996:  362-­‐363)  

Francesca  Merlan’s  ‘Gender  In  Aboriginal  Social  Life:  A  Review’  (1988)  is  a  
lengthy  and  important  survey  covering  the  twenty-­‐five  years  from  1961-­‐1986.  
Merlan  notes  that  the  majority  of  works  on  Indigenous  Australians  is  about  
women,  as  it  ids  ‘written  in  explicit  opposition  to  a  much  larger  corpus  of  unself-­‐
consciously  androcentric  Aboriginalist  literature,  and  some  fairly  widespread,  
popular  images  of  the  lowly  position  of  Aboriginal  women’  (1988:  18).  She  
addresses  issues  of  structure  oriented  sociology  (emphasis  on  tribal  societal  
mores)  and  actor-­‐oriented  sociology  (in  the  recovery  of  Aboriginal  women  as  
social  actors)  and  tackles  the  difficulties  of  Western  anthropologists  working  on  
a  society  where  many  of  the  basic  assumptions  of  life  are  vastly  different  to  what  
they  are  accustomed  to,  due  to  sexual  segregation,  labyrinthine  kinships  
relations,  and  many  other  factors.  

Michael  J.  McFarland,  Jeremy  E.  Uecker,  and  Mark  D.  Regnerus  ‘The  Rose  of  
Religion  in  Shaping  Sexual  Frequency  and  Satisfaction:  Evidence  From  Married  
and  Unmarried  Older  Adults’  (2010)  uses  data  from  the  National  Social  Life,  
Health,  and  Aging  Project  in  the  United  States.  Studies  of  sexual  satisfaction  
among  older  people  are  infrequent  and  those  that  take  into  account  the  religious  
beliefs  and  belongings  of  the  adults,  married  and  single,  are  even  rarer.  
McFarland  et  al  found  only  weak  correlations  between  religion  and  sexual  
satisfaction,  but  these  are  important  nevertheless,  considering  the  widely  held  
belief  that  ‘both  religion  and  spirituality  tend  to  become  increasingly  important  
to  Americans  as  they  age’  (2010:  298).  One  interesting  finding  was  that  ‘religious  
attendance  was  not  related  to  the  likelihood  of  having  sex,  suggesting  that  one’s  
willingness  to  incorporate  religion  into  daily  life  plays  a  larger  role  than  
attending  religious  services’  (McFarland  et  al  2010:  306).  

L.  H.  Stallings,  ‘Bi-­‐bell:  Spirituality  and  the  Sexual  Intellectual’  (2010)  argues  that  
bisexuality  is  often  near-­‐invisible  in  studies  of  sexuality,  and  that  Black  
theologies  tend  to  focus  on  race  and  not  gender  and  sexuality,  rendering  
bisexuality  doubly  excluded  from  the  lives  of  religious  Blacks.  Stallings  contends  
that  writing  can  be  a  spiritual  mode  for  Black  intellectuals,  that  ‘writing  does  not  
simply  teach  individuals  to  worship  and  praise  gods.  It  teaches  individuals  how  
to  e  gods,  or  to  see  God  in  self’  (Stallings  2010:  140).  The  chapter  reviews  bell  
hooks’  (b.  Gloria  Jean  Watkins,  1952)  Wounds  of  Passion:  A  Writing  Life  (1997).  
In  this  work  hooks,  born  a  Baptist,  and  later  a  Buddhist,  ‘uses  her  writerly  gift  as  
a  spiritual  tradition  where  bisexual  subjectivity  is  promoted  as  important  to  
liberating  selfhood’  (Stallings  2010:  143).  Writing  is  both  confession  and  
divination,  geared  to  the  past  and  the  future,  and  can  bring  healing.  

The  sixteenth  chapter,  Jeffrey  S.  Victor’s  ‘Fundamental  Religion  and  the  Moral  
Crusade  Against  Satanism:  The  Social  Construction  of  Deviant  Behavior’  (1994)  
employs  a  symbolic  interactionist  model  to  investigate  the  moral  panics  and  
campaigns  of  censorship  that  accompany  accusations  of  Satanism.  The  material  
he  considers,  including  Satanic  ritual  abuse  scares,  teenage  Satanists,  and  the  
psychotherapy  patients  that  claim  to  be  survivors  of  ritual  abuse  groups,  who  are  
usually  receiving  treatment  for  multiple  or  dissociative  personality  disorders.  
This  is  a  rich  field,  particularly  within  popular  culture  and  the  media,  buy  at  the  
time  of  Victor’s  publication  there  were  very  few  academic  studies.    Victor  
interviewed  people,  collected  and  analysed  Satanist  publications,  undertook  
content  analysis  of  newspaper  items,  and  consulted  court  records.  He  concludes  
that  moral  panics  and  moral  crusaders  have  a  common  structure  of  action,  and  in  
the  present  this  tends  to  be  framed  by  Christian  fundamentalist  beliefs)  but  that  
the  group  deemed  to  be  ‘deviant’  alters  over  time  ad  place,  so  that  tales  told  
about  witches,  heretics  or  Jews  in  the  past  are  now  attached  to  Satanists  (Victor  
1994:  309-­‐310).  It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  note  that  there  has  never  been  any  
material  evidence  that  Satanic  ritual  abuse  exists,  in  the  sense  of  forensic  science  
(Armson  2007).    

In  the  final  chapter  in  this  volume,  ‘Jewish  Gay  Men’s  Accounts  of  Negotiating  
Cultural,  Religious  and  Sexual  Identity:  A  Qualitative  Study’  (2000)  by  Adrian  
Coyle  and  Deborah  Rafalin,  reports  on  a  qualitative  study  of  twenty-­‐one  gay  
Jewish  men  from  Britain.  Interviewees  ranged  from  non-­‐observant  to  observant,  
and  while  most  were  affiliated  with  Reform  Judaism,  four  were  Orthodox,  and  
nineteen  felt  that  their  Jewish  identity  was  very,  or  quite,  important  to  them.  The  
interviews  revealed  Biblical  reasons  for  guilt  about  being  gay  and  Jewish,  a  lack  
of  ‘fit’  between  Jewishness  and  the  gay  club  culture,  suicide  attempts,  and  
varying  levels  of  support  from  parents.    Unsurprisingly,  the  interviewees  who  
said  that  ‘no  one  in  their  social  network  knew  they  were  gay  were  all  Orthodox’  
(McFarland  et  al  2010:  35).  These  seventeen  chapters  do  not  pretend  to  be  
exhaustive,  but  are  a  representative  sample  of  some  of  the  methods  used  to  
study  the  intersections  of  religion,  sexuality  and  spirituality.  The  subsequent  
volumes  in  the  series  are  focused  on  the  body,  historical  case  studies,  and  the  
contemporary  religio-­‐spiritual  context.  

References  
 
Armson,  Morandir  (2007)  ‘Signs  of  the  Devil:  The  Social  Creation  of  Satanic  
Ritual  Abuse’,  in  Victoria  Barker  and  Frances  di  Lauro  (eds),  On  A  Panegyrical  
Note:  Studies  in  Honour  of  Garry  W.  Trompf,  Sydney,  Sydney  Studies  in  Religion,  
143-­‐159  
 
Brunn,  Stanley  D.  (ed.)  (2015)  The  Changing  World  Religions  Map:  Sacred  Places,  
Identities,  Practices  and  Politics,  5  volumes,  Dordrecht  and  New  York,  Springer.  
 
Hunt,  Stephen  J.  (2010)  The  Library  of  Essays  on  Sexuality  and  Religion,  5  
volumes,  Farnham  and  Burlington,  VT,  Ashgate.  
 
Hunt,  Stephen  J.  and  Andrew  K.  T.  Yip  (eds)  (2012)  The  Ashgate  Research  
Companion  to  Contemporary  Religion  and  Sexuality,  Farnham  and  Burlington,  VT,  
Ashgate.  
  
Juschka,  Darlene  M.  (2001)  Feminism  in  the  Study  of  Religion:  A  Reader.  London,  
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Mandair,  Arvind-­‐Pal  S.  (2009)  Religion  and  the  Specter  of  the  West:  Sikhism,  India,  
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