Religion and Intersex

Stephanie Budwey is the Luce Dean’s Faculty Fellow Assistant Professor of the History and Practice of Christian Worship and the Arts at Vanderbilt Divinity School, USA. She is the author of Sing of Mary: Giving Voice to Marian Theology and Devotion (2014) and co-editor of In Spirit and Truth: A Vision of Episcopal Worship (2020).

• Introduction I Don’t Understand How We Christians Allow This To Happen"; 1 The Knife of the Norm": Intersex from Scientific Perspectives; 2 "If You’re Not Written Specifically into the Law, You Are Specifically Excluded from the Law": Intersex from Legal Perspectives; 3 "I Am Not Other, I Am Different. But Just like You": Intersex from Cultural Perspectives; 4 "God Created Us, All of Us, in All of Our Differences and Beautiful Uniqueness": Intersex from Theological Perspectives; 5 "The Liturgy Is the Expression of All the People of God, and All Those People Need to Have Their Voices Heard": Intersex from Liturgical Perspectives

"Budwey comprehensively and authoritatively orients readers to recent developments in legal and theological accounts of diverse sex. Intersex people's voices are always centred. The analysis of intersex's liturgical erasure is a particularly powerful challenge to Christian communities." - Susannah Cornwall, Professor of Constructive Theologies, University of Exeter, UK"Budwey demonstrates the importance of intersex people and the detriment of their erasure through ethnographic research, bringing to life the polyvocality of intersex Christians that creates conditions for a tangible move beyond the gender binary to(ward) the materiality of polymorphism. This research establishes a theology of liturgy of the everyday, encouraging the deepest, most radical flourishing for intersex people and their freedom to participate fully in the work of the people; a literal liturgical expression of sexual difference." - Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, Visiting Professor, Duke Divinity School, Durham, USA"In this terrific resource Budwey’s ethnographic research allows many who are polymorphic to 'speak' about how they are traumatized, mutilated, excluded and erased by sexual and gender dimorphism. Their voices inform contemporary efforts to establish a more inclusive sexual paradigm for biblical interpretation, Christian ethics, pastoral care and worship." - Patricia Beattie Jung, Professor of Christian Ethics, Saint Paul School of Theology, USA"In five skillfully curated chapters, Stephanie A. Budwey’s monograph presents six intersex interviewees who discuss surgical, medical, and liturgical erasure of their physical complexities in an attempt to force their bodies to fit male or female sex. Budwey places her interview partners in dialogue with prominent gender theorists and published intersex authors such that the book provides a broad yet concise introduction to literature on intersex and Christianity. [...] Budwey brings the scholarly dialogue on intersex closer to where it needs to be: based in observational study of physical reality, both human and animal, that proves sexually polymorphic bodies are normal; accepting of a human past in which—no matter what twentieth-century scholars insist—gender was not solely male or female; and working toward a future in which sex and gender do not define who gets to be considered human or deserving of human rights." - Indira Falk Gesink in QTR: A Journal of Trans and Queer Studies in Religion “This book approaches the topic of intersex from multiple disciplinary perspectives. By incorporating ethnographic methods, particularly through interviews with intersex individuals, Budwey brings the discussion closer to real-life experiences, making the book more nuanced and multi-dimensional, rather than just a conceptual or academic exploration. […] I highly recommend this book. [It] challenges society’s binary understanding of gender and urges both readers and the broader public to engage with the diversity and complexity of gender beyond the binary. In this sense, it is particularly timely.” - Shin Cheng in CrossCurrents“Insgesamt bietet das Buch von Stephanie Budwey mit ihren biologischen, rechtlichen, kulturellen und theologischen Perspektiven auf Intergeschlechtlichkeit aber wichtige Einblicke in die Herausforderungen und Chancen, die mit der Annerkennung und Intergration intergeschechtlicher Menschen in verschiedenen gesellschaftlichen Bereichen verbunden sind und macht so deutlich, dass dieses weiterhin noch weitgehend unbeachtete Forschungsgebiet in der Theologie mehr Aufmerksamkeit benötigt.” - Katharina Mairinger-Immisch in Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research