New project video available on YouTube

In March 2012, Dr Susannah Cornwall visited Cambridge to interview Revd Dr John Hare about the implications of intersex conditions for Christian theology. A recording of their interview is now available on the Lincoln Theological Institute's YouTube channel. 

Church Times response to Intersex and Ontology paper

The Church Times (2 March 2012) has published an article by Madeleine Davies about my paper, "Intersex and Intology: A Response to The Church, Women Bishops and Provision". It's entitled "Intersex bodies brought into the ordination debate". Here's an excerpt:

Intersex conditions undermine the assumptions about the clear delineation between male and female which underpin the theology of Christians that oppose women bishops.

This is the argument of a new paper, Intersex and Ontology, by Dr Susannah Cornwall, a researcher at the Lincoln Theological Institute at the University of Manchester.

She is writing in response to the Latimer Trust-sponsored publica­tion The Church, Women Bishops and Provision, which argues against women bishops from an Evangelical standpoint. Dr Cornwall says that many contemporary theological accounts of sex, gender, and sexuality take too little heed to the existence of physical intersex conditions.

“The important question is what definition of maleness the authors of The Church, Women Bishops and Provision are using, and what it is in which they believe that maleness inheres,” she writes. “Intersex dis­turbs the discreteness of maleness and femaleness, and might therefore also disturb the gendered roles which are pinned to them.”

It is estimated that about one in every 2500 people is born with some kind of physical intersex condition, where there is physical ambiguity of the genitalia or a “mismatch” between the genitalia and other physical characteristics. Dr Cornwall believes that “very little” has been written about the impact of such conditions on theology and the Church’s ministry.

“Generally, there has been a growing awareness that intersex exists but not specifically theological reflection,” she said. “The pastoral concern is the big impetus for my project, but I don’t think it’s possible to do that without thinking about the theological considerations.” 

 

Guest post on Lianne Simon's website

I have a guest blog post about the Intersex, Identity and Disability project on Lianne Simon's blog on intersex and Christianity.

I have also been invited to speak about my paper on Intersex and Ontology as part of a panel at the Modern Church conference in July, responding to the General Synod's vote on women and the episcopate, which will just have taken place. The theme of this year's conference is Women and Religious Authority.

Intersex and Ontology: A response to The Church, Women Bishops and Provision

My paper, "Intersex and Ontology: A Response to The Church, Women Bishops and Provision", is published online today by the Lincoln Theological Institute. Its publication coincides with the Church of England General Synod's latest discussions concerning the consecration of women as bishops.

The paper is written in response to a document recently published by the Latimer Trust, by a group of writers concerned that a legal framework should be provided to protect those within the Church of England who do not accept the ministry of women bishops. I argue that the authors of that document assume a model of theological anthropology which does not take adequate account of the existence of physical intersex conditions:

"The fact that maleness and femaleness in The Church, Women Bishops and Provision are considered so self-evident that they do not require definition suggests that the authors do not consider human sex something which can be doubted. However, the existence of intersex, and the uncertainty it raises in some respects about polarized, either-or accounts of human maleness and femaleness, means that anthropologies grounded in fixed, polar models of human sex are anthropologies only of some humans. In order to be comprehensive, theological anthropologies should take account of all the evidence available. Not taking account of intersex, then, might lead to problems for arguments grounded in anthropologies of clear, fixed, polarized maleness and femaleness ...

To argue that intersex embodiment might also be a specific and good part of God’s creation, and that intersex reflects God’s image, is not to undermine the argument that maleness and femaleness also reflect God’s image. Whilst many have argued that women reflect specific attributes of God in a way that men do not – and that there are specific and particular roles appropriate to women, of which serving as bishops is not one – the question is whether the anthropologies in which such statements are grounded also fail to do justice to the distinctions between the sexes – all human sexes, including intersex.
Furthermore, the existence of intersex bodies raises broader questions about the way in which the scriptural witness is interpreted in this debate: do the creation accounts in Genesis tell contemporary readers all they need to know about what it means to be sexed, or should other evidence, including the evidence of bodies which do not fit into the polarized model, also be taken into account?"

This research took place as part of the Intersex, Identity and Disability project at the Lincoln Theological Institute, University of Manchester. "Intersex and Ontology: A Response to The Church, Women Bishops and Provision" may be downloaded as a PDF file, free of charge, from the project's resources page.

For more information about the project, please e-mail susannah.cornwall@manchester.ac.uk



Intersex conditions and healthcare chaplaincy

I am currently undertaking a survey of healthcare chaplains and chaplaincy assistants in Britain in order to learn more about the existing training and resourcing provided for those involved in pastoral and spiritual care for people with intersex conditions and, in particular, for parents whose children are born with intersex conditions/DSDs. I hope to learn what kinds of additional training resources healthcare chaplains would most highly value in this area.

To find out more about this aspect of the project, or to be added to the mailing list to receive updates, please e-mail susannah.cornwall@manchester.ac.uk

Other areas of the project continue. I have now begun to conduct one-to-one interviews with people in Britain who identify as intersex and Christian in order to find out more about the interactions between their intersex condition and their faith identity. If you or anyone else you know might be interested in taking part in this area of research, either with a face-to-face interview or by filling in a questionnaire, please see the advertisement for research participants (under the "Intersex and Faith Identity" tab on the right of this page) for more details - or simply contact Susannah Cornwall in confidence at the e-mail address above.