This is a specialist site for discussion of books on all matters relating to faith and homosexuality. My own experience in first coming out as a gay man many years ago, was that reading of all kinds around matters of sexuality was immensely helpful in developing my own self-confidence. Later, when I returned to the practice of my Catholic faith, I struggled initially to reconcile the two issues: faith and sexuality. Again, I found reading helpful.
To my surprise, I found that the common perceptions of faith and sexulaity were misguided and often incorrect. Modern scholars have shown that traditional interpretations of scriptures are unsound; that the presentation of Church teaching as "unchanging tradition" is demonstrably false; that Church history shows that notable figures in the past, including saints and senior clergy, were known to have had homosexual relationships - and were accepted all thge same; and that for many centuries, the church in one way or another showed liturgical acceptance of some forms of same sex unions.
The problem I encountered along the way, was identifying and sourcing books which were reliable and readable. Over time, I read a fair number, and built up some indirect knowledge of others.
Now I want to put this knowledge to good use in helping others embarking on the same exploration.
I once had several years' good experience as a school librarian, experience which gave me some bibliographical skills in evaluating and recommending books which I had not necessarily read for myself.
I have here combined those skills with my own knowledge of the issues and of key works to put together a collection of titles that I feel I can offer with confidence, together with useful information to help each reader to decide for her/himself whether it is appropriate for individual needs.
The list is still incomplete, bit will be added to regularly, together with comment -mine, and I hope, yours too.
It is of course, no use knowing about a book unless you can access it - so I have included wherever possible links to Amazon for convenient purchasing if you wish. At present, these link are up mostly for Amazon.com (US), but I a updating additional links for the UK.
Finally, for wider discussion of all issues relating to faith and sexuality, including news, church teaching, spirituality and church history from an LGBT perspective, see my main blog "Queering the Church", where this site originated.
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