Made in Your Image: Starting a conversation about gender diversity in Dutch Christianity from the God-image of genderqueer Christians.

Abstract

This thesis aims to start a conversation on gender diversity in Dutch Christianity. In order to do so the research uses the God-image as a starting point to learn from genderqueer Christians. First the thesis provides an overview of the current debate on gender and sexuality in Dutch Christianity. Then, according to Adrienne Rich’s call to start with the material, this thesis uses grounded theory as the method to analyse and create knowledge from the lived experiences of genderqueer Christians. The experiences provided by genderqueer Christians are analysed with the use of three key concepts: ‘Politics of belonging’ as described by Nira Yuval-Davis, negotiating and deconstructing faith and ‘gender normativity’ defined upon the work of Beauvoir and Butler. This thesis is an example of the value of knowledge created by ‘the other.’