• Holy mothers of God: sex work, inheritance, and the women of Jesus’ genealogy

    Author(s):
    Marika Rose (see profile)
    Date:
    2019
    Group(s):
    Theology
    Subject(s):
    Bible, Theology, Theology, Doctrinal, Sex--Religious aspects, Women's studies, Women--Sexual behavior, Communism, Socialism, Christianity
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    sex in the bible, sex work, Biblical theology, Systematic theology, Religion and sexuality, Women's gender, and sexuality studies, Marxism
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/zpkb-wk73
    Abstract:
    In this article I consider the stories of Jesus’ women ancestors in the genealogy which opens the Gospel of Matthew. Reading these stories in light of Marxist-feminist analyses of marriage, sex work and reproductive labor, alongside contemporary sex workers’ rights discourse, and through Marcella Althaus-Reid’s claim that all theology is “a sexual act”, I explore their implications for contemporary debates about property and propriety in both Christian systematic theology and contemporary Christian sexual ethics – which cannot, of course, be disentangled from one another. To conclude, I return to the twinned questions of righteousness and purity which centrally define both theological accounts of Christian identity and Christian sexual ethics, suggesting that righteousness relies for its coherence not only on the abjection of those who fall short of its standards, but also on their labor.
    Metadata:
    Published as:
    Journal article    
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    4 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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