What does it really mean to be free in Christ?
In this bold and imaginative workshop, Dr. Paul Hoard draws from Lacanian psychoanalysis and his book Eucontamination: Disgust Theology and the Christian Life to explore Galatians 5 through the lenses of desire, lack, and freedom.
Rather than approaching the fruit of the Spirit as a moral checklist, this session reframes it as the unexpected and unearned evidence of a life set free—from the law, from anxious striving, and from the fantasy of moral wholeness.
With help from Lacan’s insights into the structure of desire, Dr. Hoard invites us to imagine Christian freedom not as control over the flesh, but as a deeper, riskier openness to lack, love, and grace.
Come ready to think differently, wrestle theologically, and reflect deeply on what it means to live by the Spirit—not by self-mastery, but by joy.
BRIEF BIO
Paul Hoard, PhD, LMHC, is a licensed counselor, psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and associate professor of counseling psychology at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. His scholarship focuses on Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, sexuality, white-body supremacy, perpetration-induced traumatic stress, and the theology of disgust. He has spoken and published internationally on topics including purity culture, trauma, eucontamination, play, and the intersections of theology and psychoanalysis. In addition to his academic work, Dr. Hoard maintains a private counseling practice and provides clinical supervision and
consultation. He is the co-author, with his sister Billie Hoard, of the forthcoming book Eucontamination: Disgust Theology and the Christian Life.
