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The Theology and Radical Phenomenology of the Sexual Flesh Justin Pearl Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Spring 5-10-2019 Unpresentable Members: The Theology and Radical Phenomenology of the Sexual Flesh Justin Pearl Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Part of the Christianity Commons, Continental Philosophy Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Pearl, J. (2019). Unpresentable Members: The Theology and Radical Phenomenology of the Sexual Flesh (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1789 This One-year Embargo is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. UNPRESENTABLE MEMBERS: THE THEOLOGY AND RADICAL PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL FLESH A Dissertation Submitted to the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By J. Leavitt Pearl May 2019 Copyright by J. Leavitt Pearl 2019 UNPRESENTABLE MEMBERS: THE THEOLOGY AND RADICAL PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL FLESH By J. Leavitt Pearl Approved April 5th, 2019 _______________________________ _______________________________ Dr. Marie Baird Ph.D. Dr. George Worgul Ph.D. S.T.D. Associate Professor of Theology Professor of Theology (Committee Chair) _______________________________ Dr. Lanei Rodemeyer Ph.D. Associate Professor of Philosophy ________________________________ ________________________________ Dr. James Swindal Ph.D. Dr. Marinus Iwuchukwu Ph.D. Dean, McAnulty College Chair, Theology Department Associate Professor of Theology iii ABSTRACT UNPRESENTABLE MEMBERS: THE THEOLOGY AND RADICAL PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL FLESH By J. Leavitt Pearl May 2019 Dissertation supervised by Dr. Marie Baird Unpresentable Members begins with a wager: that a proper account of the flesh and its sexual character may not only prove philosophically fertile within its own limited domain, but may also provide insight into the theological question of the proper role and place of gender and sexual difference within communities, particularly Christian religious communities. In this regard, this dissertation has two distinct goals: one phenomenological and one theological. Phenomenologically, it offers an account of the manifestation of concrete sexual determinations not only as they objectively appear across the “body- object” (Körper, le corps) but with equal importance as they manifest within the subjective affectivity of the flesh (Leib, la chair). Here, the text is particularly centered on the radical phenomenologies of Michel Henry and Jean-Luc Marion, two theologically-inflected phenomenologies that offer a powerful reconception of bodily-ownness, and yet iv nevertheless replicate the worst patriarchal and heteronormative prejudices of their predecessors. Theologically, Unpresentable Members employs this account of the flesh in order to construct an account of community that resists oppressive forms of social and religious marginalization—particularly the oppression of sexual minorities and other representatives of gender and sexual difference. In this regard, the present dissertation brings together, for the first time, three discourses: radical phenomenology, queer theory, and theology. v DEDICATION For Teddy and Amelia vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would first like to extend my deepest gratitude to my dissertation committee—Dr. Marie Baird, Dr. Lanei Rodemeyer, and Dr. George Worgul. Your careful reading and consideration made this dissertation possible. I would like to thank my family who offered me encouragement when continuing was difficult, and the periodic and necessary breaks without which I never would have finished. I should offer a particular thank you to the organizers of the Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences who allowed me to present many of the central ideas of this dissertation in early form, and offered invaluable feedback on each. Perhaps, more than anything else, the present form of this dissertation is owed to the countless friends and colleagues who encouraged (or at least tolerated) my constant testing out of ideas on them, including Jeremy Northup, Erica Freeman, Jennifer Carter, Steven Perry, Joseph Smith, Gwendolyn Jackson, Matthew Scruggs and all the participants of the Pittsburgh Continental Philosophy Reading Group, past and present. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................... iv DEDICATION ..................................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................................... vii Dismemberment: By way of an Introduction .........................................................................xii §1. The Question of Sexuality ...................................................................................................... xii §2. Ἀσχήμων: the Dysmember and Dismemberment .................................................................. xvi §3. The Path to be Followed ....................................................................................................... xxi CHAPTER 1 - Phenomenology: Having a Body, Being a Body .............................................. 1 §I. Edmund Husserl: The Quasi-Transcendental Body .................................................................3 A. Does Edmund Husserl Have a Body?: ............................................................................................................. 3 B. The Constituted Body: ................................................................................................................................... 10 C. The Constituting Body: .................................................................................................................................. 17 D. The Ego-Like Body:....................................................................................................................................... 19 §II. The Living Body in French Phenomenology ......................................................................... 23 A. The French Husserl ........................................................................................................................................ 24 B. The (R)ejected Ego......................................................................................................................................... 26 C. From Transcendental Ego to Living Body ..................................................................................................... 29 §III. Phenomenology and the Sexual Body .................................................................................. 39 A: Husserl On Sexuality ..................................................................................................................................... 39 B: Sexuality in the Constitution of the Body ...................................................................................................... 43 C. The Problem of Sexual Difference ................................................................................................................. 46 CHAPTER 2 - Michel Henry: Transcendental Asexuality .................................................... 64 §I: Radical Phenomenology ......................................................................................................... 64 A. From Onto-Phenomenological Monism to Radical Phenomenology ............................................................. 64 B. The Radical Reduction ................................................................................................................................... 72 C. Self-Affectivity, the Essence of Life .............................................................................................................. 75 §II: The Erotic Flesh ................................................................................................................... 81 A. The Objective Body and the Subjective Flesh ............................................................................................... 81 B. The Failure of Sexuality and the Erotic .......................................................................................................... 88 C. Concrete Sexual Determinations .................................................................................................................... 97 D: Transcendental Asexuality ........................................................................................................................... 100 §III: Consequences of the Erasure of Sexual Difference ............................................................ 103 A. The Universal Man....................................................................................................................................... 103 viii B. Tropes of Femininity .................................................................................................................................... 111 C. Profanation: on Non-traditional Sexuality ...................................................................................................
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