Hybridity, the Incarnation, and Multiracial Queer Theology

[Haley Gabrielle]

Abstract:

Although Christian theology has embraced the racial diversity of the church, there is a great need for more theological reflection on individual multiracial experience. This paper takes up the topic of multiracial identity in conversation with queer theology. Responding to Patrick Cheng’s queer theology and Brian Bantum’s multiracial theology, the doctrine of the incarnation is analyzed in terms of the notion of hybridity to reflect on potential contributions from and to multiracial queer lives. Jesus models how lived experience can work powerfully to challenge binaries, whether of humanity/divinity, or of non-white/white, female/male, and gay/straight. Christ’s hybrid nature may be imagined as a “neither/nor—but” identity, or as a “1 + 1 = 1” identity, aligning with different ways that multiracial people have understood themselves historically and presently. The latter model is advocated here as a particularly effective means of both individual validation and large-scale disruption of the binaries of race, sexuality, and gender. In the new creation inaugurated by Christ, binary-breaking is not a spectacle, but a new normal. This paper combines Scripture and theological thought with survey statistics and personal accounts, in accordance with the importance of dialogue on lived experience in theological reflection.

The full paper is attached to this post.