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Queering Christ: Habitus Theology As Trans-Embodied Incarnation in Late Medieval Culture by Jonah Coman, B.A., M.Litt

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Queering Christ: Habitus Theology As Trans-Embodied Incarnation in Late Medieval Culture by Jonah Coman, B.A., M.Litt Queering Christ: Habitus theology as trans-embodied incarnation in late medieval culture by Jonah Coman, B.A., M.Litt. Supervisors: Prof Vicky Gunn, Dr Anna Fisk Dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Glasgow School of Art September 2019 Declaration I hereby declare that this research has been carried out and the thesis composed by myself, and that the thesis has not been accepted in fulfilment of the requirements of any other degree or professional qualification Dedicated to my readers, Dr Stephenie McGucken and Dr Sara Oberg Stradal, to my mentors, Prof Pat Cullum and Dr Liz Oakley-Brown, and to my supporters, Q.M, F.M and J.H. Abstract Situated at the intersection of queer theology, longitudinal research on material culture and trans studies, this thesis presents a coherent medieval theology of a transhuman incarnated Christ. This manifests both at academic/ecclesiastical levels and at lay, mystic and poetic ones. The material evidence stems from exegetical and mystical texts, sermons, lay poetry, community dramatic pageants and visual imagery from book- to architectural-scale. The accumulation of these sources results in a coherent theology associated with the incarnational technology of the sartorial habitus. The habitus theology enables both the medieval and the modern reader to encounter an incarnated Christ that dons humanity as textile. The history of the habitus thology is joined by an art-historical study of skin colour as a gendered signifier, in order to demonstrate the multiple avenues of trans- ontological visibility in medieval sources. The exploration of embodied and material devotion of the middle ages reveals possibilities of queer readings regarding gender and even ontological status of the human body. The alternatively- bodied/-gendered Christ not only provides a different way of understanding the past and finding what in modern terms would be non-conforming bodies and genders, but also a history for thinking through gender and embodiment in contemporary religious, artistic or daily practice. The theological implications of this are large not just for understanding the medieval body and its boundaries, but also for giving a past to contemporary queer theology and body theology. Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................................. 5 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Binary Christ ........................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Moving past medievalist essentialism: trans methodologies .........................................13 1.2.1 Metamethodology: assemblage.......................................................................15 1.2.2 Period problems: Chrononormativity................................................................18 1.2.3 Transitional bodies..........................................................................................22 1.2.4 ‘To tie it all together’: the stitch as trans praxis ...................................................26 1.3 Thesis structure......................................................................................................31 2. Gendering the medieval body .......................................................................................35 2.1 Essentialism and medieval material discourses ...........................................................38 2.1.1 Medicine and the multiple medieval genders.....................................................39 2.1.2 Visualising karyotype: or, are you an XX? ..........................................................43 2.2 Medieval gender: The naked body ............................................................................46 2.2.1 Secondary sexual characteristics ......................................................................48 2.2.2 Primary sex characteristics..............................................................................52 2.2.3 Sexing Christ .................................................................................................62 2.3 Medieval difference: Gendered skins.........................................................................67 2.3.1 Gendered skins .............................................................................................70 2.3.2 Visualising trans genders ................................................................................79 2.3.3 Gendering Christ: beyond the binaries ..............................................................82 2.3.4 Christ the perfect hermaphrodite ....................................................................88 3. Habitus theology.........................................................................................................93 3.1 Historical habitus: antiquity to late middle ages ..........................................................95 3.1.1 Augustine’s habitus........................................................................................98 3.1.2 Orthodoxy and heresy beyond Augustine ........................................................ 100 3.1.3 Disguise versus revelation............................................................................. 105 3.2 Tunica inconsutilis versus tunica pellicea .................................................................. 110 3.2.1 Mary the god-weaver................................................................................... 116 3.2.2 Christ as protective overcoat ......................................................................... 127 3.2.3 Clad in our humanity .................................................................................... 130 4. Tunic iconography ..................................................................................................... 139 4.1 John the Baptist’s camel-hide ................................................................................. 140 4.2 Apostle Bartholomew’s skin-jacket.......................................................................... 145 4.3 Tunica Dei in visual texts........................................................................................ 151 4.3.1 Ostentatio vulneris....................................................................................... 152 4.3.2 Intersections: Pink Christ .............................................................................. 157 5. Tunica Dei in English and Latin text .............................................................................. 169 5.1 English drama – textual and meta-textual habitus ..................................................... 171 5.1.1 Kote of leddur ............................................................................................. 172 5.1.2 Sirke wounded ............................................................................................ 174 5.2 Latin and vernacular English literature ..................................................................... 176 5.2.1 Pseudo-Bernardine tradition: Christ vs the worldling ........................................ 176 5.2.2 Julian of Norwich’s innovation ....................................................................... 188 5.3 Latin and vernacular English preaching .................................................................... 194 5.3.1 Quare rubrum: genealogy and influences ........................................................ 195 5.3.2 Quare rubrum as sermon themata ................................................................. 200 5.3.3 The multiple tunica of Quare rubrum.............................................................. 205 5.4 Disrobing Christ: flagellation as flaying..................................................................... 209 6. The legacy of habitus theology .................................................................................... 221 6.1 Queer Christ and salvific trans-gendering ................................................................. 222 6.2 Conclusion........................................................................................................... 226 References:....................................................................................................................... 231 Primary sources: ........................................................................................................... 231 Secondary sources:........................................................................................................ 240 Coman Queering Christ 1. Introduction They were all gathered into the small church in Liège, bodies pressed against each other, feeling each other’s warmth and smelling each other’s sweat. Above their heads, terrifying yet piteous, there hung a wounded crucifix. The priest knew that his audience was the community of Liege’s lepers, ghettoised away from the livelier neighbourhoods, but he knew exactly how to reach to them: Oh! If it is grievous to you that you are leprous, have patience in all things. Raise up your heads, and perceive with your heart the wounds of our saviour hanging on the tree, the pains of the dying one, the price of the redeeming one, the scars of the one rising up again! ... nothing is so salvation-bringing to us as to daily think about how much God and Man endured for us. Behold! Indeed the saviour suffered, was made leprous on the
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