University of Richmond religious studies course teaches students how to 'queer' the Bible
Professor previously authored papers on ‘biblical rape stories,’ suggested Elisha molested child
A gender studies professor in Virginia whose latest work focuses on rape and sexual assault in the Scriptures is leading a course on what it means to “queer" the Bible.
The University of Richmond, a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Virginia, has launched a new religious studies course titled “Queer Bible,” which invites students to explore the Bible through the perspectives of LGBT-focused “queer theory and sexuality.” The class, designed to “queer the Bible” and its interpretations, tackles subjects such as sexuality, gender identity and “queer pleasure in the Bible,” according to its official description.
Leading the course is professor Rhiannon Graybill, a women, gender, & sexuality studies advisory board member at the university and a scholar of the Hebrew Bible, according to her university bio, which lists her “preferred pronouns” as “she/her.”
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Graybill, whose bio describes her as “especially interested in feminist and queer approaches to biblical interpretation,” is the author of several books, including 2016’s Are We Not Men?: Unstable Masculinity in the Hebrew Prophets and 2021’s Texts after Terror: Rape, Sexual Violence, and the Hebrew Bible, which “focuses on rape and sexual violence in the Hebrew Bible” and “offers new readings of the rapes of Dinah, Tamar, Bathsheba, Hagar, Lot’s daughters, Daughter Zion, and the Levite’s concubine.”
The “Queer Bible” professor has also written a number of journal articles focused on feminist and LGBT-identified approaches to the Scriptures: titles like “A Child Is Being Eaten: Maternal Cannibalism and the Hebrew Bible in the Company of Fairy Tales” (Journal of Biblical Literature, 2022) and “Yahweh as Maternal Vampire in Second Isaiah: Reading Gender and Prophecy with Luce Irigaray” (Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 2017) highlight her boundary-pushing approach.
In “Elisha’s Body and the Queer Touch of Prophecy” (Biblical Theology Bulletin, 2019), Graybill examines a scene from 2 Kings where the prophet Elisha revives the son of the Shunammite woman, and suggests a sexualized encounter between the prophet Elisha and the child.
She writes, “When Elisha himself arrives, there are multiple steps to the process. The power to restore life requires time, solitude and full bodily contact. Elisha cannot simply touch the child; he must involve his body more fully.” Noting the various bodily “points of contact — mouth, eyes, palms,” Graybill writes the original Hebrew could imply a “kind of whispering magic” that, coupled with Elisha’s positioning of his body stretched out on the boy, suggests a sexualized or intimate encounter.
CP reached out to Graybill for comment on Monday. This article will be updated if a response is received.
“Queering” Christianity’s most sacred book is growing in popularity in academia: Wellesley College — which boasts former first lady Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, and journalist Diane Sawyer among its alumna — describes its own “Queer Bible” course as "[a]n introduction to the Bible at the intersection of queer theory, biblical interpretation, and the historical study of the ancient Middle East."
The course is classified under its "Jewish Studies Courses," according to the school's website.
Other schools like the University of Central Florida offer a “Queer Christian Fellowship,” which gives students the chance to form “discussion groups around the topic ‘Queer Interpretation of Scripture.’”
Students are encouraged to attend the weekly gatherings for a “reclaiming of faith” with a mission to “celebrate the inclusive love of God with us.”
