Sacramental Trans Feminism: Ritualism, Liberation and Rites

This book engages at the intersection between transness, feminism, and theology, and seeks to work towards a sacramental trans feminism. It identifies ‘gender trouble’ within the sacramental life of the Christianity, and offers a theological account of how and why sacramental practices trouble gender. Sacramental Trans Feminism explores historical and contemporary accounts of sacramental gender trouble and brings them into dialogue with trans and feminist thinkers and concepts. It is inspired and informed by the author's own experience of gender exploration in the context of Anglo-Catholicism in the Church of England – a tradition with a long history of being accused of fostering gender transgression. Sacramental Trans Feminism searches the history of ritualism in the Church of England for theological resources that might help us meet the current political moment, when lines are being drawn and forces both secular and theological seek to make trans lives unliveable. By identifying aspects of Christian tradition that might point towards trans liberation, while also being clear-sighted about where the tradition has enabled harm, Sacramental Trans Feminism offers a vision of a Church that draws from the past but which is not content to live there. Rather, through a trans feminist reading of ritualist history, it seeks nothing less than the beatific vision, the Kingdom come on earth, liveable lives for all, especially for those of us who find our lives made unliveable by the powers and principalities of this world.