Staff profile

I come from Aotearoa New Zealand, with ancestors coming from England (including Durham), Scotland (including Shetland) and Switzerland in the 19th and 20th centuries. I currently live in Newcastle upon Tyne with my partner Hilary. My previous education includes a Master's degree in theological ethics from the University of Notre Dame and sociology degrees from NZ universities. Equally important for forming my thinking has been my time in Christian churches and intentional communities in Aotearoa (Stillwaters Community, Catholic Worker, Urban Vision). I am passionate about mental health, LGBTIQ+ justice, politics, film, music, and puns.

Dissertation

Tentative title: "Word and Flesh: Methods in Evangelical Ethics of LGB+ relationships"

The evangelical churches continue to cause serious harm to God's LGBTIQ+ children. There is both considerable division and significant development among evangelicals and other Christians on the question of whether erotic relationships between couples who are not binary-gendered, cisgender, and heterosexual can be accepted and blessed by churches.

For my PhD in Theology and Religion, I am analysing and evaluating methods used by evangelical Christians to understand and discuss the ethics of homoeroticism (sexual or otherwise erotic/romantic relationshpis between people perceived to be of the same gender and/or sex). I am looking at people who identify as evangelicals, inside and outside academia, from both affirming and non-affirming perspectives, who have written or spoken at some length in English, and whose views are currently influential.

This research involves examining explicit and implicit methods in Christian ethics as well as surveying and analysing evangelical understandings of gender, sex, and marriage. It brings together my interest in ethical methods with my evangelical background and my passions for equity, inclusion, and wellbeing—particularly for LGBTIQ+ people. I hope my work can help improve understanding of evangelical and other Christian perspectives. I also hope it can help evangelicals and other Christians in our reflection on our God-given revelation and mission, and to find a place in that picture for LGB+ relationships to thrive in our communities.

• Methods in Christian ethics
• Natural law
• Divine command ethics
• Evangelicalism
• Gender
• Sex and sexuality
• Liberation theologies
• Political theologies
• Pacifism
• Anarchism
• Economic justice
• Structural sin
• Political realism
• Mental health
• Social sciences

Available for media contact about:

• Ethics, Religion & Beliefs: Evangelical Christians and LGBTIQ+

Chapter in book

• O’Connell, Mary Ellen & Day, Caleb (2017). Sources and the Legality and Validity of International Law: Natural Law as Source of Extra-Positive Norms. In The Oxford Handbook of the Sources of International Law. Besson, Samantha & d’Aspremont, Jean Oxford University Press. 562-581.

Conference Paper

• Day, Caleb (2021), Touchstones of Evangelical Ethics, Australian and New Zealand Association of Theological Schools 2021 Conference – Theological Ethics. Online.
• Day, Caleb (2017), How Martin Luther King, Jr’s Pacifist Liberation Theology Makes Reinhold Niebuhr’s Political Realism Possible [Conference paper version], Rethinking Pacifism for Revolution, Security and Politics. National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (Te Ao o Rongomaraeroa), University of Ōtago, New Zealand.
• Day, Caleb (2016), Is Opposition to LGBTI Claims ‘Counter-Cultural’?, New Zealand Association of Theological Schools Combined Conference. Carey Baptist College, Auckland, New Zealand.
• Day, Caleb (2016), God’s Memory of Suffering: A Troubling and Rejuvenating Challenge to Heteronormative Theology and Heterosexual Theologians, Lumen et Vita Graduate Theological Conference, 'Sacramental Vision and Rejuvenating Word: Embodying Theological Conversations with a Troubled World'. Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, Boston, MA, United States.
• Day, Caleb (2016), 'A Time to Throw Away'? Rethinking the Gender Requirement for Legitimate Christian Sex, M.T.S. Colloquium, University of Notre Dame. University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, United States.

Journal Article

• Day, Caleb (2020). How Martin Luther King, Jr’s Pacifist Liberation Theology Makes Reinhold Niebuhr’s Political Realism Possible. Global Society 34(1): 36-51.