samuel ernest

I am a dynamic teacher, speaker, and preacher 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, book club, church, or LGBTQ+ group. When preaching, I am more than happy to stick to the lectionary. If there is a certain theme or passage your congregation would like to think through, let me know.

Potential topics include:

  • Christian theology
    • Christology
    • ecclesiology
    • eschatology
    • priesthood
    • theology and culture
    • Pietism
  • queer theology (Christian and adjacent)*
    • the relationship between queer theory + theology
    • un–/post-apologetic approaches
    • queer theology by Episcopal priests
  • 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
    • gay and Catholic theologies of fraternity
  • the Sodom story, sodomites, and sodomy
    • their function in pro/anti-gay Christianities
    • their appearance in gay literature
    • constructive approaches
  • HIV/AIDS in literature and theology
    • HIV/AIDS in poetry
    • urban gay + global approaches
    • “the Body of Christ has AIDS”
    • AIDS and the theology of horrors
  • the church in LGBTQ literature
  • spiritual autobiography, Augustine through today
  • the history of gay/lesbian publishing
    • the spirituality of liberation rags
    • erotic writing and censorship
  • my work as publisher and editor of Homodoxy
    • the need for new gay/queer/trans writing and theology
    • Christian publishing and sexuality
  • writers
    • Walt Whitman
    • John Rechy
    • Judy Grahn
    • Tim Dlugos
    • Richard Rodriguez
    • Robert Glück
  • theologians
    • Kevin Gordon
    • J. Michael Clark
    • Marcella Althaus-Reid
    • Mark D. Jordan
    • Kathryn Tanner
    • Linn Marie Tonstad
  • My book: Coarse Work: Essays in Theology and Gay Life (Homodoxy, 2023)

* I will not make arguments for or debate the presence and purpose of LGBTQ+ people in the church and its sacramental life. That is not my calling. However, I’d be happy to recommend people who may be willing to do that.

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

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