"Catholic Homophobia"

Understanding homophobia as a discursively constituted antipathy, this article argues that the culture of the Catholic Church – as constituted through the Roman magisterium – can be understood as fundamentally homophobic, and in its teaching not just on homosexuality, but also on contraception and priestly celibacy. Moreover, in this regard, the article argues for a hermeneutic of continuity from the pontificate of John Paul II to that of Pope Francis – the latter’s ambivalence repeating the ‘scrambling’ of speech that is typical of homophobic discourse

Is orthodoxy radical? Revisiting G. K. Chesterton and John Robinson

That orthodoxy can be radical might be thought a rallying cry from the 1990s. But in fact it was already being made in the 1960s by John Robinson, and before him by G. K. Chesterton, at the start of the twentieth century. This tradition of radical orthodoxy – the idea that orthodoxy is both rooted and uprooting – is here recalled, and it is further argued that its possibility and practice are founded in the Eucharist, in the performed story of a body that is both human and divine

Magnetic resonance imaging based signal intensity mapping predicts appropriate therapies after prophylactic ventricular tachycardia substrate ablation in patients with previous myocardial infarction and secondary prevention implantable cardioverter-defibrillator implantation

The aim of this study was to determine the capability of ceMRI based signal intensity (SI) mapping to predict appropriate ICD therapies after PVTSA

Narrative theology in Religious Education

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in British Journal of Religious Education, 20 March 2013. Copyright © 2013 Taylor & Francis. Available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01416200.2013.785931This article advocates a pedagogy of Religious Education (RE) based upon a narratival framework informed by both narrative theology and narrative philosophy. Drawing on the work of narrative theologians including Stanley Hauerwas, the article outlines the nature of the framework, describes the four phases of learning that comprise the pedagogy, and explains how such an approach can overcome existing difficulties in how biblical texts are handled within RE. Working from the narrative assumption that individuals and communities are formed by reading, sharing and living within stories, it suggests that the pedagogy might encourage pupils to think about how the lives of Christians are shaped by their interpretations of biblical narratives, to offer their own interpretations of biblical and other texts, and to consider the stories – religious, non-religious or both – which shape their own lives. In so doing, the article moves away from a ‘proof-texting’ approach to the Bible towards one in which pupils are enabled to think about the significance of biblical narratives for both Christians and themselves

"Gender Ideology: For a ‘Third Sex’ Without Reserve"

‘Gender ideology’ is a term used by many, but especially the Vatican, to chastise the view that sexual difference is more than just male and female, sexuality more than desire of the opposite. Each of the three books discussed in this article defends some version of this supposed ideology; each argues—though in different ways—for the need to move beyond a dimorphic account of sexual difference. Their arguments are taken up and deployed against what is here presented as the ideology of sexual dimorphism, as it is seen in the body theology of John Paul II. It is argued that such a theology dehumanises intersexed people, along with homosexuals, and undermines Christian soteriology. The church needs to acknowledge as fully human all who don’t conform to heterosexual dimorphism; it needs to embrace a ‘third sex’ without reserve