Biblical Studies, Queer Affect, and the Politics of Respectability

This essay uses autobiographical, queer, and affective criticism to consider the implications of respectability politics for openly gay white men in biblical studies. Several anecdotes are narrated as a way of engaging the role of respectability politics in contemporary LGBTQ cultures, in queer biblical scholarship, in theological education, and in the affective life of a gay biblical scholar and teacher. A theoretical conclusion engages Michel Foucault and Judith Butler to suggest that LGBTQ biblical scholars might wish to practice “not being governed quite so much” by the norms and methods of mainstream academic biblical scholarship.