The University of Chicago (UChicago) is offering a course entitled “Queering God,” according to the university’s 2023-24 course catalog.
The course is listed as a religious studies course and proposes a series of questions about God. Students who sign up for the course will consider ideas such as “Is God queer?” and “What does queerness have to do with Judaism, Christianity, or Islam?” the course description shows.
“This week, UChicago released its course listings for the autumn quarter of the upcoming academic year. One of the classes listed under the religious studies department, titled ‘Queering God,’ caught the eyes of a multitude of students both within and outside the religious…
— The Chicago Thinker (@ThinkerChicago) July 26, 2023
“This course introduces students to foundational concepts in queer and trans studies by focusing on queer Jewish, Christian, and Islamic theologies,” the description reads. “We will analyze the ways that contemporary artists, activists, and scholars are using theology to reimagine gender and experiment with new relational forms. Our readings will include a variety of genres: memoir, letters, scriptural interpretation, and a novel.”
UChicago offered a course entitled “The Problem of Whiteness” in 2022 that made national headlines and was summarily postponed. (RELATED: ‘Queer Dance’ And ‘Porn’: Colleges Are Actually Offering These Classes, And More)
Joseph Flores, student co-president of a Christian ministry organization on campus, spoke to the Daily Caller about the course offering. Flores argued the course undermines basic teachings from major world religions about topics such as homosexuality.
“Progressive actors seek to conquer and remake God into some crude mockery in their own image. The Christian God is without gender, without sex. To think of Him in such human terms and reduce Him to these categories is deeply disrespectful,” he told the Daily Caller. “The idea of ‘Queering God’ is, on its face, quite ridiculous. Simultaneously foolish and offensive, such a line of thinking is emblematic of the societal and spiritual decay we are suffering in our country today.”
Olivia Bustion is slated to teach the course, according to the course catalog. Bustion is a Martin Marty Center Fellow who received her masters of divinity from UChicago. Her past work has focused on the relationship between autism and religion, particularly Christianity, with an article of hers published in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion in 2017.
The University of Chicago is rated as the sixth-best college in the United States by U.S. News and World Report, and the eleventh-best university in the world, according to QS rankings.