Precarious Theology: A Queer and Crip reading of Augustine's Theology of Finitude

This thesis considers the idea of precariousness as it arises in Christian theology, as a means of navigating a number of difficulties around how we talk well about our finitude, interdependence, and varied experiences of vulnerability. By attending to our precariousness, theologians alight on a central paradox of Christian thought: the simultaneous goodness of our created finitude, alongside the all-pervasive nature of sin and fallenness. How we frame this paradox, I argue, is crucial to the manner in which marginalised groups encounter Christianity. Certain framings of theological finitude and sin work in oppressive ways, ossifying hierarchies and endorsing injustice. Other framings of theological finitude and sin work in solidarity with the oppressed, centralising marginalised voices, and working towards a more just Christian imagination. The thesis forges a dialogue between queer and crip theory and Augustine’s theology of finitude, allowing them to mutually critique and inform each other, which in turn deepens my understanding of both the queerness of theology and the theological nature of queerness. In the first chapter, I discuss recent constructive theological discussions of finitude alongside Judith Butler’s distinction between ‘precariousness’ and ‘precarity’. I outline two key risks that I see as being characteristic of Christian theological discernment between the good and bad limits of finitude. I then draw upon resources from disability theory to inform my readings of Augustine across the rest of the thesis. These resources enable me to construct a precarious theological method in response to what I see as the condition of theological precarity. I define theological precarity as the systematised marginality of certain people groups within the Christian tradition, whose perceived deviance makes them, in Judith Stark’s words, ‘in God’s image, but less so.’ The second chapter studies the category of ‘use’. ‘Use’ has recently received a renewed attention in both theology and queer theory, and thus facilitates a methodological 2 dialogue between the two fields. The chapter examines the complexities of Augustine’s attitude towards finitude on De doctrina Christiana as he distinguishes between ‘use’ and ‘enjoyment’, reserving ‘enjoyment’ for God while all finite things are to be ‘used’. Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s category of ‘queer use’ I argue for the possibilities of queering Augustinian ‘use’, arriving at the shared priorities of restlessness, translucency and care between Ahmed’s theory and Augustine’s theological scheme, while highlighting the different accounts of solidarity between them. The third chapter navigates the ascription of sin to disability via metaphor. I contrast two forms of theological metaphor across Augustine’s anti-Pelagian Writings, looking at his accounts of privative sin and the nature of the soul. In the first form of theological metaphor, Augustine seeks rhetorical anchor-holds for his doctrine of sin, such that we understand sin by way of human ill health and disability. I contrast this with the apophatic metaphors he employs for the nature of the soul, which offer a method for describing precarious theological categories without conscripting marginalised bodies into theological imagery. Leaning into the instability of these metaphors, I discuss how laughter in disability theology further disrupts the analogies between disability and sin. While chapters two and three use queer and crip theory to critique and nuance Augustine’s theological accounts of finitude, the fourth chapter attempts to perform the inverse, seeking theological resources in Augustine’s theology that might benefit queer and crip theory. Here, I look at an impasse in queer and crip thought around hope, despair, and the risks of both critical negativity and optimism when responding to our finite state. In response, I propose that Augustine’s Christology, as seen in the Homilies on the Gospel of John, and his ‘Christmas Day’ sermons, disrupts various binaries around desire, spatiality and temporality, and exhorts us to have greater faith in the present. This impulse, I argue, is visibly queer, but this queerness is granted greater breathing space with the gift of a divine horizon, which makes space within the frustrations of finite paradox. Finally, I conclude with reflections on possible further avenues in queer theology, as it occupies a space of incarnational devotion.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Kundu, Tanya

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Zahl, Simeon

• Augustine
• Finitude
• Precariousness
• Queer Theology
• Disability Theology

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/05c62e5e-7d39-4055-934d-9cb7b06806f9/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.114994

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/378691