Dr. Jay Michaelson delivered the Seventh Annual CLGS John. E Boswell lecture on Thursday, April 24, 2014 at Pacific School of Religion.

Abstract: Queer theology holds forth the promise of reinventing theological discourse in the light of LGBTQ experience, queer theory, and a hermeneutic informed by marginalized voices and outsider discourse. But how does the queer theological enterprise intersect with queer activism? What are the possibilities, and perils, of translating between theology and activist practice? What forms of political discourse are informed by queer theology, and what are undermined?

Dr. Jay Michaelson is an author, activist, and academic.  He is currently a Visiting Scholar at Brown University, Director of the LGBT Global Rights Initiative at the Democracy Council, a Fellow at Political Research Associates, and a weekly columnist for the Forward newspaper.

Jay is the author of five books and two hundred articles on religion, sexuality, law, and contemplative practice.  His new book, Evolving Dharma: Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment, was published in 2013 by North Atlantic Books. Other books include God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality, an Amazon bestseller and Lambda Literary Award finalist;Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism; and Another Word for Sky: Poems.

Jay holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and nondenominational rabbinic ordination.

Part II of Lecture on Vimeo.