Emerging as Affirmative Pastoral Caregivers Beyond Gender Binaries: Gender Creative Promise (Emerging Perspectives in Pastoral Theology and Care)

Emerging as Affirmative Pastoral Caregivers Beyond Gender Binaries: Gender Creative Promise uniquely brings a gender diverse theological imagination to the field of pastoral theology, supplemented by deploying a “gender creative” interpretative lens on scripture. The reader is introduced to an array of persons diverse in their gender variance, four continua of gender (sex, identity, expression, attraction), a gender affirmative psychotherapeutic model as a template for the field of pastoral theology, common resilience strategies that transgender persons employ in the face of cultural oppression and aspersion, benefits derived from religious affiliation that can enhance resilience, and scripturally-based principles for delivering affirmative pastoral caregiving beyond gender binaries. The author encourages readers to look within and wrestle with the complexities of their own gendered selves while journeying alongside him to emerge as pastoral change-makers in their places of teaching, ministry, and caregiving. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page List of Illustrations Part I: A Place on Earth Chapter 1: Getting Started An Instrumental Authorial “I” for Pastoral Theology The Instrumental “I” as Investigator Going Forward Notes Chapter 2: LGBTQ+: Terminologies and Histories Transgender Emergence Gender Creativity Part One Coda Notes Part II: Transgender Survey, Components of Gender, and Knowing the “True Gender Self” Chapter 3: The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS) Report Notes Chapter 4: Exploring Four Components of Gender: The Genderbread Person Redux Anatomical Sex Gender Identity Gender Expression Attraction All Together Now Notes Chapter 5: “Where Do the Mermaids Stand?” From Diagnoses to Advocacy The “True Gender Self” Part Two Coda Notes Part III: Strategies of Resilience Chapter 6: Gender Creative Resilience Common Resilience Strategies for Transgender Persons Pastoral Practice Notes Chapter 7: Psychology of Religion: Ally to Gender-Affirmative Pastoral Theology The “Missions” of Religious Belonging Two Sociobiological Missions of Religion and Their Fruits The Sociocultural “Mission” of Religion and Its Fruits Notes Chapter 8: Beyond Empathy in Pastoral Theology The Field of Pastoral Theology Opening Doors Part Three Coda Notes Part IV: “Yet I Say Unto You” Chapter 9: Toward a Gender Creative Lens on Biblical Interpretation The Imaging of God Finding One’s Self in Biblical Interpretation Notes Chapter 10: Principles for Delivering Affirmative Pastoral Caregiving Beyond Gender Binaries Principle 1: God Creates Gender Variance as Part of God’s Creation (Genesis 1:26–28a) Principle 2: Bodies and Lives are Cocurated with God Over Time (Genesis 2:7, 18–24) Principle 3: Callings May Lead Outside of Gender Roles and Norms (Matthew 19:3–6; 10–12) Principle 4: All Belong to God (Galatians 3:24–29) An Excursus on “Male” and “Female” Principle 5: Words Cannot Contain God (Apophatic Theology) Gender Creative Pastoral Principles and Strategies of Resilience Notes Chapter 11: Gender Creative Pastoral Caregiving: Skills of the Canaanite Woman Part Four Coda Notes Bibliography Index About the Author