samuel ernest

I am a dynamic teacher and an award-winning speaker, with years of experience teaching at Yale Divinity School and Yale College. My thought is always rooted in deep and wide reading, and I tend to develop my own idiosyncratic approaches to my topics.

I am available for speaking engagements, workshops, guest teaching, and preaching. I would love to visit your classroom, church, book club, or LGBTQ+ group. Potential topics include:

  • queer theology (Christian and adjacent)*
    • the relationship between queer theory + theology
    • un–/post-apologetic approaches
  • theology of sex, sexuality, and desire
    • marriage, celibacy, and their discontents
    • gay marriage and its limits
    • pleasure
  • gay male theology
    • history of, 1950s through today
    • its relation to lesbian and queer theologies
    • constructive thoughts on gay sexuality and desire
  • the Sodom story, sodomites, and sodomy
    • their function in pro/anti-gay Christianities
    • constructive approaches
    • their appearance in gay literature
  • HIV/AIDS in literature and theology
    • poetry
    • urban gay + global approaches
    • “the Body of Christ has AIDS”
  • topics in Christian theology
    • Christology
    • ecclesiology
    • eschatology
    • priesthood
    • theological methodology
    • theology and culture
    • Pietism
  • the history of gay/lesbian publishing
    • the spirituality of liberation rags
    • erotic writing and censorship
  • “coming out”
    • its history and literature, and its limits
  • writers
    • Walt Whitman
    • John Rechy
    • Judy Grahn
    • Tim Dlugos
    • Richard Rodriguez
    • Mark Doty
    • Robert Glück
  • theologians
    • John J. McNeill
    • Kevin Gordon
    • J. Michael Clark
    • Marcella Althaus-Reid
    • Mark D. Jordan
    • Kathryn Tanner
    • Linn Marie Tonstad
  • Coarse Work: Essays in Theology and Gay Life (Homodoxy, 2023)
  • my work as publisher and editor of Homodoxy
    • the need for new gay/queer/trans writing and theology
    • Christian publishing and sexuality

* The one thing I will not do in Christian settings is make arguments for or debate the presence and purpose of LGBTQ+ people in the church and its sacramental life. I feel strongly that that is not my job.

If you are a group of LGBTQ+ people of Christian faith seeking to learn about our history and new ways to think about our relationship to our churches, it would be an absolute pleasure to speak with you.

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