Emory University religion professor Jordan writes not just a powerful, at times brilliant, brief for Christian churches' blessing same-sex unions—though it is that. It is also a primer in recent queer theory and a critique of contemporary America's wedding industry. Jordan traces the history of Christian thought about marriage (rehearsing some of the ground he covered in The Ethics of Sex
) and insists that there is no fixed, transhistorical Christian ideal of marriage. Since the early church only grudgingly allowed Christians to marry, same-sex unions may be no more a departure from previous Christian understandings of marriage than today's enthusiastic endorsement of heterosexual marriage is. The most innovative chapter examines engagement and asks whether gay couples can, or should, be engaged; here Jordan offers close readings of narratives about gay unions from 1951 (before Stonewall) and 1979 (after Stonewall, but before AIDS). Unfortunately, the book can be so jargon-laden that it is at times almost impenetrable: in just one paragraph, the reader will stumble over "My performance encounters the dichotomy male/female in its doubled or squared version" and "the presumptively universal essence of one polarized gender." Decoding the academese is rough going, but worth the effort. This is not merely a contribution to gay studies; any Christian who wants to think more clearly about marriage should read Jordan. (June)
