Queering the Ethiopian Eunuch: Strategies of Ambiguity in Acts: Emerging Scholars

Sean D. Burke is assistant professor of religion at Luther College. This is a revision of his dissertation completed under Mary Ann Tolbert at the Graduate Theological Union.

"Queering the Ethiopian Eunuch broadens and deepens our understanding of a mysterious figure in Acts, who can now be seen as pivotal to the book as a whole. What is more, Burke demonstrates that venerable traditions of historical and philological criticism and newer approaches such as queer theory, far from being intrinsically opposed to each other, can join together to shed new light on the reading of ancient texts." L. William Countryman The Church Divinity School of the Pacific/Graduate Theological Union "Sean Burke's remarkable analysis of the Ethiopian Eunuch in the book of Acts not only interprets the eunuch's many social ambiguities as a fitting and insightful introduction to the theology of Acts as a whole, but it also rests that interpretation on a comprehensive and surprisingly enlightening study of sexualities and masculinities in Mediterranean antiquity. The historical depth and scope of this volume is amazing, but the originality involved in wedding that historical work with the productive proclivities of postmodernism and specifically queer theory makes Burke's work outstanding in the field. It clearly stands as a model for how theory, history, and biblical scholarship can be integrated to produce creative, new readings of biblical texts." Mary Ann Tolbert Pacific School of Religion and the Graduate Theological Union