Body and Soul

Ellison and Thorson-Smith have coedited a collection of essays--in collaboration with two dozen prominent theologicans--that plays off the controversial 1991 Presbyterian study they coauthored entitled Keeping Body and Soul Together: Sexuality, Spirituality, and Social Justice; and takes stock of sexuality, religion, and ethics at the beginning of the new millennium. The cutting-edge analyses address the possibilities--and demands--of a justice-love ethic for individuals, church, and society.

""This book challenges all persons of goodwill to reassess their moral presumptions about sexuality. Is sexuality singular or plural? Why have religious organizations found conversations about sexual justice issues so controversial and frightening? What capacities are needed to love and do justice to sexuality minorities? Well reasoned, challenging answers to these and many other related questions are provided by the authors of this excellent book. Clearly, this is not a book for the close-minded traditionalist.""
--Peter Paris, Elmer G. Homrighausen Professor of Christian Social Ethics, Princeton Theological Seminary

""Body and Soul is both good theological news about sex and an unflinching look at the role of organized religion in sexual injustice. A moving and provocative collection, it elucidates ethical dimensions of issues of sexualities and will inform any reader concerned with the challenges of gender and sexual justice as well as with justice-based sexual relationships.""
--Charlotte Bunch, Executive Director, Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers University

""The longest revolution--the sexual one--is far from finished, but (hallelujah!) this volume takes a giant step. Ellison and Thorson-Smith have assembled a stunning group of prophetic theologians to explore the good news that our sexual pleasure is made godly by relationships of love, care, mutuality, and justice. Writer after writer shows how the personal is indeed public, and how the transformation of our human eros is intimately connected with enhanced justice in race, economics, and ecology. Such boldly incarnational theology might yet revive authentic spirituality in our churches.""
--James B. Nelson, author of Embodiment: An Approach to Sexuality and Christian Theology and Professor Emeritus of Christian Ethics at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities

""An excellent collection from progressive Christian voices that offers a thoughtful and profoundly faithful witness to the God-given gift and power of our sexualities.""
--Emilie M. Townes, Carolyn Williams Beaird Professor of Christian Ethics, Union Theological Seminary, New York



Marvin M. Ellison is Professor of Christian Ethics at Bangor Theological Seminary in Portland, Maine and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He received his PhD from Union Theological Seminary in New York City and is the author of Erotic Justice: A Liberating Ethic of Sexuality (1996) and a principal author of Keeping Body and Soul Together: Sexuality, Spirituality, and Social Justice (1991).

Sylvia Thorson-Smith is a lecturer in religious studies and sociology at Grinnell College in Iowa. A former consultant and writer of several studies for the Presbyterian Church (USA), she is the author of Pornography: Far From the Song of Songs (1988) and Reconciling the Broken Silence (1993), and coeditor of Called Out With: Stories of Solidarity (1997). Thorson-Smith lives in Grinnell, Iowa.