Contents

A Note on Translations

Introduction: No Past? Theology, Race, and Queer Theory’s Authorized Genealogies

Have We Ever Been Secular?

The Freedom of a Christian versus Babylonian Captivity

1. The Queerness of Christian Faith

Paulus = “Small”

Augustine and the Failure of Conversion

A Thousand Turns: Petrarch’s Infidelities

2. The Color of Monogamy

Queer Theory, Classical Philosophy, Christian Theology

The Invention of Monogamy

Friendship, Homonormativity, and Whiteness

Sweet Little Lies

Lascivious Grace

3. The Shame of Conjugal Sex

Saint Paul versus the US Supreme Court

A Hospital for Incurables

Procreation and the Dilemma of Orgasm

Due Benevolence

4. The Optimism of Infidelity: Divorce and Adultery

The Divine Touch of Divorce

Public (In)Fidelity

Race and the Romance of Adultery

5. On Erotic Accountability

Unforgivable Debts

Failed Confession

Communion and Contagion

Caritas (or, Indifference)

Coda: The Pressure to Commit: Professionalism, Periodization, Affect

Acknowledgments

About the Author