Eucontamination

""Encountering Billie and Paul's work on disgust and eucontamination was a revelation. It gave me language for what I had been feeling but couldn't articulate. It became a crucial part of my own process of self-actualization and healing from the diseased ways I was taught to move through the world. And as I become more regulated, I'm seeing so much lived manifestation of their deep psychoanalytical, scientific, and theological work. I truly believe that we can infect the world with good. It's working for me."" --Tamice Spencer-Helms, author of Faith Unleavened: The Wilderness Between Trayvon and George Floyd ""The central insight of this creative, well-researched, and highly sophisticated book is that the human disgust reaction has been overpowerful yet underexamined in shaping some of the most destructive expressions of traditional Christianity, including, crucially, its historic contempt toward LGTBQIA+ people. The authors coin the term eucontamination to name what is actually a quite prominent theme in the New Testament--God's grace in Christ is contamination for good. This is why we need not live out of a fearful purity ethic. They also offer reflection on church practices that can train us in seeing and living this way in the world. I highly recommend this breakthrough work."" --David P. Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics, Mercer University ""Differences that challenge our identity often evoke fear or anger. Paul and Billie Hoard brilliantly argue that underneath much of the hostility and division that fuels our polarized debates is the unaddressed presence of disgust. Disgust guards the edges of our fragility and soaks the other with self-serving righteous contempt. This compelling and troubling tour de force will rock you. You may differ with some conclusions or implications. Still, their honesty, humanity, and depth of reflection invite a stellar engagement with truth, love, and the wild, disruptive presence of Jesus."" --Dan B. Allender, Professor of Counseling Psychology, The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology ---------------------remove this line and above-------------- ""I came across Billie and Paul's work in a workshop at a queer Christian conference, and it pinged in my spirit as the exact way to describe what I had been experiencing in the Black church. I had been experiencing disgust, but I didn't know what to call it--because it was so subtle and pervasive. We agreed on Blackness. We agreed on the same truth. So, the resistance I was feeling, I didn't know how to name. Encountering their work on disgust and eucontamination was a revelation. It gave me language for what I had been feeling but couldn't articulate. It became a crucial part of my own process of self-actualization and healing from the diseased ways I was taught to move through the world. And as I become more regulated, I'm seeing so much lived manifestation of their deep psychoanalytical, scientific, and theological work. I truly believe that we can infect the world with good. It's working for me."" --Tamice Spencer-Helms, author of Faith Unleavened: The Wilderness Between Trayvon & George Floyd ""Drawing on their expertise, experience, and shared commitment to Christ's church, Billie and Paul Hoard have written a book that truly embodies the Way of Jesus. They call followers of Jesus to leave behind a faith marred by disgust theology and embrace eucontamination (contamination for good) as a way to find flourishing for ourselves and our neighbors. This book will leave you thinking deeply and acting boldly. I highly recommend it!"" --Zach Lambert, Pastor, Restore Austin ""This book taught me about myself in a way