Associate Professor Geoff Thompson, Lecturer in Systematic Theology Pilgrim Theological College, this week published an opinion piece on the ABC Religion and Ethics website.
The piece, entitled “What’s ordered about the natural order? Considering the works of God with Job and Ecclesiastes”, looks at the wisdom theology of Job and Ecclesiastes through the lens of ideas about natural order. Geoff writes;
“Consider the work of God; who can make straight what he has made crooked?” So writes the author of the book of Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew scriptures. Of course, the straightness referred to here has nothing to do with the contemporary use of that word to describe a particular sexual orientation. This loose pairing of “straight” and “crooked” is a rhetorical tool used to illuminate how the realities of the human condition resist any easy or conventional categorisation. Understood in this way, this biblical invitation reaches across the centuries to interrogate contemporary Christianity’s own discussions of sexuality and gender.
The full article can be accessed here.
Pilgrim Theological College brings faith and scholarship into conversation in order to equip and form disciples and leaders for the church and world. It is the official training college for the Uniting Church in Victoria and Tasmania and offers courses from undergraduate to master to PhD level. Pilgrim’s world-class faculty come from a diverse range of Christian traditions, ethnicities, and disciplines, to offer a rich learning environment.
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