An ambitious queer reading of John of the Cross

In a statement shared by New Ways Ministry, a Catholic outreach and advocacy organization, Miguel Díaz describes his new book as follows: “Queer God de Amor offers, as I see it, a contribution to trinitarian theology by retrieving texts and metaphors of the Spanish mystic San Juan de la Cruz (St. John of the Cross) through a Latinx hermeneutic that takes seriously daily lived experiences and relationships of LGBTQ+ people.” In addition to accurately summarizing the book’s aim to contribute to trinitarian theology by rereading John of the Cross’s poetry, commentaries, and letters, Díaz’s concise statement expresses the book’s approach to and stakes in rereading the 16th-century Spanish mystic’s writing.

Queer God de Amor takes John of the Cross’s sexual metaphors for spirituality seriously within the Catholic analogical imagination, which in turn opens theological activity to the fullness of human life in a way that affirms the range of human sexuality today. In a chapter section titled “A Queer ‘y qué’” (“A Queer [and] ‘So What’”), Díaz declares, “Retrieving and resourcing Latin@ theologies of God sanjuanistamente [in the style of San Juan] represents a new direction with ethical, practical, and pastoral implications, especially and preferentially with respect to queer Catholic persons.” Therefore, the book’s approach to rereading John of the Cross’s writing is rooted in a commitment to a life of faith informed by the author’s own journey as a queer Catholic Latino theologian.

The single-sentence description Díaz gives of the book is true in yet another sense. The qualifying phrase, “as I see it,” acknowledges that readers of the book might not see it the author’s way. In fact, the Catholic Foreign Mission Society of America (also known as the Maryknoll Society) did not see it his way when—without providing a reason, according to Díaz—it notified him that it was terminating his contract with Orbis Press to publish Queer God de Amor. This attempt to prevent the book’s publication testifies to the ministerial need to which it affirmatively responds. As Nicholas Hayes-Mota’s review of the book confirms, “for queer and Latine Catholics, like myself, [this book] is a theological lifeline.” For offering that lifeline, both the book’s author and its publisher, Fordham University Press, should be recognized.