There Was a Man Who Had Two Sons: A Parable of Futurity, Reproductivity, Utopia, and Social Death

Abstract

Few of the parables found in the gospels have received more attention than the parable of the man with two sons, commonly known as the parable of the Prodigal Son. In this paper, I argue that discourses of queer futurity can help make new sense of the parable, highlighting its use of family structures and its assumptions about time, and attending to the story’s reflections on the conditions of flourishing. Understood this way, the parable of the man with two sons reads as a debate over bodies, kinship, and possession of the future, and it provokes reflection on the limits that heteronorming structures place on thriving. Read alongside theorists of queer futurity, the parable of the man with two sons affords at least two possible interpretations. It can be understood as a gesture toward a new horizon, embracing a queer future free of the constraints of heteronormative reproductivity. But the parable can also be understood as a conservative cautionary tale that insists on temporal reproductive norms and pathologises deviance from full alignment toward a heteroreproductive future.

Keywords

• futurity
• reproductivity
• social death
• utopia
• heteronormativity
• heteropatriarchy
• flourishing
• gospel of luke