Author Meets Critics: How (Not) to be Christian, by Brandy Daniels

Contemporary feminist and queer theologies often turn to Christian identity and formation as a resource to affirm difference. How (Not) To Be Christian: Identity, Formation, and the Future by Brandy Daniels (Fordham University Press, 2026) draws on queer theories of temporality and subjectivity to interrogate this trend and offer another vision. Daniels critically examines the implicit futurity undergirding the methodologies and accounts of formation in prominent feminist and queer theologies, demonstrating how the goal of cultivating difference is effaced: a singular and stable vision of religious identity serves as the telos to which gender and sexual identities must bend. Placing queer theories in conversation with theological anthropology and method, Daniels outlines limits of this approach and (de)constructively considers possibilities of unformation of/for religious identity and theology. A diverse panel of scholars will engage the book, bringing in perspectives from queer studies in religion, black queer theologies, systematics, and political theologies.