An excerpt from Chapter One: Letting Go of the Status Quo, Queering Contemplation
At first glance, contemplation and queerness may not seem to be related to each other. But through engaging in the contemplative
life, I’ve come to learn that contemplation makes me more queer— more curious, wild, weird, fierce, free, embodied, and present. And, in turn, my queerness—in terms of both my sexuality and strangeness—has given my contemplative life more spaciousness, permission, eroticism, and wonder. My queerness and my contemplative life have become a union of joy, pleasure, and infinite possibility.
Queer is the way I tilt my head to look at the world. Queerness, in my life, has been not only about sexuality but also about expanse, curiosity, openness, pleasure, weirdness, love, oddity, and liberation. I deeply believe queerness lives in every human in the ways we find ourselves subverting the status quo, forgoing norms, and engaging one another with open hearts and hands. By definition, queerness relates to oddness, strangeness, eccentricity, and unconventionality. While queerness can also relate to non-hetero sexuality or to a gender that is not cisgender (because by its nature queerness refuses categories), this book engages the great expanse of the word. In what ways can all the meanings of queerness awaken contemplation and life?
Because this book and my deeper work are about queering contemplation, it’s important to consider what it means to queer something. In my understanding of queer theory—as a philosophy and study of lives and expressions disentangled from heteronormativity—I am seeking to disentangle my own experience of contemplation from the grasp of Western Christian expressions formed in heteronormativity, patriarchy, and Eurocentricity/ whiteness. In my exploration of contemplation and mysticism, I hope to cultivate a conversation around the topics of strangeness, oddity, liberation, love, delight, and wonder—disentangled from manipulation, power, abuse, and violence. And these pivots take time. It is a continual process to disentangle ourselves from these dominative foundations; it takes time for us to find our own way and own voice in contemplative life.
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PAST EVENTS + INTERVIEWS + REVIEWS
June 1, 2024 | Queering Contemplation Conversation with Cassidy Hall and Larry Morris III with Golden Hour Books in Indianapolis
June 23, 2024 | Queering Contemplation Reading, Conversation, and Book Signing at Indy Reads in Indianapolis
May 24, 2024 | Abbey of the Arts: Queering Contemplation presentation | Online Event – 11-1pm EST/8-10am PST
May 2024 | Interview on the In Good Faith Podcast
May 2024 | Spirituality and Practice Review
May/June 2024 | Foreword Reviews
May 2024 | Publisher’s Weekly
May, 2024 | A new and noteworthy mention from the Editors of Sojouners
May 1, 2024 | Spark My Muse | Interview, listen by clicking here.
May 9, 2024 | SDI, Global Dark Night of the Soul, Conference | Presentation and LGBTQ+ Affinity Group Gathering Discussion
April 18, 2024 | Read Pray Write | Excerpt reading from book, listen by clicking here.
Dr. Cassidy Hall, DMin, MDiv, MTS, MA 
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