She Is Like Your Favourite Aunt

St. Mary for Ethiopia Orthodox Christian Queer Women

Bibliographic Data

ID3933130
AuthorsSerawit B Debele (0000-0002-6620-5987, University of Bayreuth Bayreuth Germany, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume55
Issue4
Pages1-20
Publication date2025-01-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Religion in Africa (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4200 • E-ISSN: 1570-0666
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/15700666-12340327
OpenAlexW4406786641
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited14

This article draws on accounts of how Ethiopian Orthodox Christian queer women relate to Saint Mary to foreground an aspect of intimacy that goes beyond the object of sexual desire. By studying relationships with nonhuman agents such as saints, the article demonstrates how queer subjects cultivate intimacies that go beyond and outside the dominant way of relating to the deities. In queer women's praxis, intimacy's formations and manifestations expose the lurking shades and shadows of intimacy and complicate what seems to be an accepted norm that dictates how to be close to Saint Mary. Further, by highlighting the spiritual life of queer women, this article joins the scholarship that problematises the assumption that religious and sexual identities are (or should be) mutually exclusive

Art · Art history · Aunt · Favourite · History of religions · Sociology · Theology · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Philosophy · Religious studies

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