The Embrace of Eros: Bodies, Desires, and Sexuality in Christianity

Chapter 13. Creation as God’s Call into Erotic Embodied Relationality

217 ChApter 13 Creation as God’s Call into Erotic Embodied Relationality Laurie A. Jungling ( ( god CreAtes. This statement represents one of the central doctrinal claims at the heart of most Christian theology. At the heart of God’s creative activity is reflected God’s relational essence, love (1 John 4:8). In its rich and multidimensional form, love is both the power and the material by which God constructs creation. According to Protestant systematic theologian Paul Tillich, love is a holistic reality containing eros as one necessary aspect of that love.1 Hence, one part of God’s creating love is eros. For the purposes of this essay, I will define eros as the divine call into life as embodied relationality that has been freely and faithfully given in and through God’s ongoing creation.2 Erotic love is the force that gives life the relational essence that fills and empowers all of creation. One aspect of God’s love is freedom. Life in creation is given by the God who freely loves.3 Beginning with the claim of God’s freedom in the loving 218 The Embrace of Eros creation of all things can lead to making freedom the central component in all erotic relations. In fact, many progressive theoethical discussions of the erotic in recent years, particularly queer theology, have made the freedom to pursue and engage in erotic relationships the preeminent theme in articulations of sexuality.4 While other principles are important, these advocates argue, freedom is finally the axis upon which all eros spins.5 I submit that when considering creation as well as the creator God in relation to the erotic, something is missing if only freedom is emphasized. The God of love, who calls all things into being, not only loves freely but faithfully as well. God’s faithfulness and God’s freedom are inextricably linked to one another in the divine creativity so that faithfulness is as much a part of the erotic vitality of creation as is freedom. In this essay, then, I explore the interweaving of faithfulness and freedom through the lens of a doctrine of creation. This doctrine of creation views God’s vocational call as the divine proclamation that relational humans are created in the image of a loving, free, and faithful God and, through this act of creation, are called to serve and enhance relational and social life in all its diversity and abundance.6 From this divine calling, Christians today can discern a theoethical call to seek, be, and do life-centered erotic relationships in faith-filled freedom. frEEdom and Eros rEvIsItEd The nature of the erotic in human existence has been much discussed in theoethics recently and as mentioned above, freedom has been the prevailing theme. Embodied life is essentially erotic, some theologians argue, and therefore humans need, deserve, and even have the right to experience their erotic lives freely and with as few limits as possible. Any limits to this erotic experience emerge from an understanding of justice that seeks fairness, rights, and a guarantee of freedom—namely, the idea that all embodied humans are entitled to experience their unique erotic capabilities equally. The only way to discover the truly erotic in human embodiment, such advocates maintain, is through freedom in justice. Space prevents a deep discussion of these arguments for freedom, but one example will suffice. In his book Erotic Justice, gay theologian and ethicist Marvin Ellison lifts up liberation as the primary focal point of his understanding of erotic justice. Ellison names “body right” as one of the central guiding principles of ethical eroticism: “Body right means freedom from control and manipulation by another, as well as having the power to direct the use of one’s body and body space according to context and one’s own choices.”7 According Creation as God’s Call 219 to Ellison, without an open freedom to explore the rich and diverse relational experiences life has to offer, the erotic nature of humans will be suppressed or even denied to some, if not all, human creatures. Freedom is the necessary aspect of the erotic; without freedom, the vitality of the erotic dies. This advocacy by many Christians for erotic freedom is hardly surprising , given the extreme regulation and suppression of erotic life throughout much of the Western Christian tradition. (One exception would be the mystical tradition that often pursued an erotic, though a...