Towards a Queer Sister-Folk Church? Reimaginations in Lutheran Scandinavian Folk Church

Abstract

The article argues that the inclusion of material created from an ethnographic research strategy opens the possibility for theological reimagination of two aspects of Scandinavian creation theology: the meaning of ecclesial space and the notion of folk. The article uses elements from queer theory/theology as sensitising devices for recognizing the potential of such theological reimagining. The empirical material is based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Church of Our Lady, Trondheim, Norway, an ecclesial practice committed to rituals of hospitality. Reading the displacement of street space and church sanctuary space in the light of elements of queer theory/theology, the article aspires to show how the notion of folk and the meaning of sanctuary space is destabilized and unsettled through these practices.