In this post, Karen R. Keen tells us about her new book Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships. Keen is a biblical scholar and spiritual care provider residing in Durham, North Carolina. She is the founder of The Redwood Center for Spiritual Care and Education. Read her scholar’s interview with WBS.

Take us “behind the scenes” to the making of Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships (Eerdmans). What inspired you to write it?

Two seemingly incompatible realities in my life converged in a way that compelled me to study the topic of faith and sexuality. First, I grew up in a conservative Baptist church and culture where I learned to love God and Scripture passionately. Second, I came to the traumatic realization in my late teens that I am gay. I didn’t know it was possible for a devout Christian to be gay. I spent the next two decades studying, praying, and trying to make sense of my sexual orientation in light of Christianity.

Ultimately, I wrote the book because I felt a responsibility to share what I have learned both personally and academically over the years in hopes of helping others to navigate this issue. I spent years in the ex-gay and celibate gay movements. But as I continued to study Scripture at the graduate and post-graduate levels, I gained a greater understanding of the Bible and how it speaks into our lives on complex and controversial issues like sexuality. I hope my insights will be helpful. I have already received feedback from readers that this book has been the game changer for them.

Who do you hope will read this book and why?

The book is accessible to students and lay people, but engages scholarship robustly to be useful to scholars as well. It synthesizes a wealth of material while proposing new directions. I hope both traditionalists and progressives read the book. I have intentionally written it with sensitivity to traditionalists. Until recently, I was a traditionalist for much of my life, so I know the concerns and the language of the tribe I come from. Many progressive books on the topic are not compelling to traditionalists because they speak a different language and are rooted in presuppositions that traditionalists do not accept.

Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships respectfully challenges traditionalists to consider a different viewpoint, but does so taking their concerns seriously and holding a high regard for Scripture.

At the same time, the book is an excellent resource for progressives who want to better understand the viewpoints of traditionalists and why they hold the views they do (which are not as simplistic as sometimes caricatured). The book models a way progressives can helpfully respond to traditionalist concerns.

What practical suggestions do you have for teachers or others who might want to use this book for the classroom or group discussions?

The book is an excellent supplemental text for a variety of classes. Thus, any class that covers one of the following areas would benefit: ethics, sexuality, biblical exegesis, and/or the intersection of theology and science. It is concisely written at 114 pages (with 24 additional pages of endnotes). Chapters include:

• the history of the church’s response to gay and lesbian people.
• ancient Jewish and Christian views on same-sex relations.
• key biblical arguments on complementarity of the sexes from both the traditionalist and progressive sides.
• explication of Old Testament law codes.
• the biblical authors reinterpretation and legal deliberation of biblical mandates as an example for readers to consider.
• the feasibility of life-long celibacy and Christian tradition’s view on this.
• science and a theology of the fall.

While the book as a whole builds on itself to make a case, individual chapters can be read as case studies in exegesis, ethics, or theology. Each chapter also includes recommendations for further reading for those who want to go deeper.

Dr. Carmen Palmer has a new book out called Converts in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Gēr and Mutable Ethnicity. She is a Hebrew Bible scholar specializing in the Dead Sea Scrolls (read more about her here). In this post Dr. Palmer tells Women Biblical Scholars about the importance of this new work.

Take us “behind the scenes” to the making of Converts in the Dead Sea Scrolls. What inspired you to write it?

This book is a revision of my dissertation project. What started off as an interest in the foreigner in the Hebrew Bible melded with a growing interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and emerged as the project it is. Along the way I had to devise my own method as a way of proceeding, by testing whether comparing Dead Sea Scrolls that used the gēr in scriptural rewriting against scriptural predecessors could highlight sociohistorical change. To round it out and further confirm the test I added a chapter comparing some of the findings against Greco-Roman associations, which then became another interest.

Who do you hope will read this book and why?

The book is very specialized toward the Dead Sea Scrolls, and yet also very broad in terms of areas addressed. I hope anyone interested in Dead Sea Scrolls, identity and ethnicity theory, Hebrew Bible, Rewritten Scripture, conversions in ancient Judaism, the foreigner in the Bible, and Greco-Roman associations may find something of use in it. I try to explain and introduce topics in a way that is accessible to both specialists and also to those wanting to gain a general understanding of the topics covered. The topic of conversions in ancient Judaism is still widely debated and I look forward to ongoing discussions with readers, whether they agree or disagree with the book’s findings.

What practical suggestions do you have for teachers or others who might want to use this for the classroom or discussions?

The book can be used in whole or in part fairly readily. I introduce the topic of identity and ethnicity theory in ancient Judaism, as well as in Greek and Roman traditions, in both the introduction and Greco-Roman comparison chapters (Chapters 1 and 5), so I would suggest taking a look at the opening sections of both these chapters if that is your interest. The book also goes over general history of scholarship regarding the various traditions evident in the scrolls, and reassesses that evidence over the course of the book. If you are interested in just a few select passages, you can also distill those in Chapters 2 and 3. Chapter 4 is a good synopsis of what I consider to be key components of ethnicity within the sectarian movement affiliated with the Dead Sea Scrolls, based on the combined findings from Chapters 2 and 3 (shared kinship, connection to land, and common culture in the practice of circumcision).