Under the Bed of Heaven: Christian Eschatology and Sexual Ethics

250 Pages·2021·2.252 MB·English

by  Richard W. Mccarty

UNDER
THE BED
OF HEAVEN

UNDER
THE BED
OF HEAVEN
Christian Eschatology
and Sexual Ethics
Richard W. McCarty
Cover image: Detail from Eclipse, 2017. ©Michael Tkach.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
©2021 State University of New York Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
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contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www .sunypress .edu
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: McCarty, Richard W., 1975– author.
Title: Under the bed of heaven : Christian eschatology and sexual ethics /
Richard W. McCarty.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2021] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021004746 | ISBN 9781438486253 (hardcover) | ISBN
9781438486277 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Sex—Religious aspects—Christianity. | Future
life—Christianity.
Classification: LCC BT708 .M4153 2021 | DDC 241/.66—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021004746
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedicated to
The Reverend Doctor John Harper
For your advocacy, friendship, counsel, irreverence, and shared adventures.
Your life and gifts have made room for many to be, to live, and to love.
You have made my life all the better—and all the more interesting.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Hiding under the Bed of Heaven 1
1. Building the Bridge between Christian Ethics
and Eschatology 11
2. Sex in Heaven 31
3. Christianity’s Sexless Heaven 57
4. New Visions for Sex in Heaven 81
5. Sexual Metaphors for the Eschatological Life 111
6. An Eschatological Sexual Ethic, Part 1: The Gifts
and Fragilities of Monogamy 135
7. An Eschatological Ethic, Part 2: The Christian Possibilities
of Promiscuity and Celibacy 161
Notes 197
Selected Bibliography 223
Index 231

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author would like to recognize and thank the following:
Taylor & Francis for permitting the use of portions of my previous article,
“Eschatological Sex,” Theology & Sexuality 19, no. 2 (2014), for developing
chapter 5 of this book. Theology & Sexuality can be found online through
Taylor & Francis at: www .tandfonline .com
Mercyhurst University, for granting my sabbatical during the fall 2015
semester, which allowed me to conduct research and begin to draft this book.
The Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Iowa State Uni-
versity, and especially Dr. Hector Avalos, for inviting me to present a talk on
eschatology and sexual ethics at their 2016 annual Religious Studies Speaker
Series. With your passing, I hold you in memory.
The American Academy of Religion (AAR) (2014, 2019), the Eastern
International Regional Meeting of the AAR (2014, 2018); Edinboro Uni-
versity (2015), Binghamton University at the invitation of Dr. Douglas Jones
(2019), and the Penn West Conference of the United Church of Christ (2018),
each for the opportunity to present the constructive arguments of this book
as it was being developed and finished.
Michael Tkach—for your enduring friendship, and for the generous
contribution of your artwork to this project with the cover photo, “Eclipse.”
And, ever so much, to Ryan Graber. You truly are the best among us.
I very much appreciate your support and encouragement. Your strength,
courage, and largeness of heart should be told in story. You deserve celebra-
tion—and all who know you find a reflection of heaven.