Wrestling with the Angel: Faith and Religion In The Lives of Gay Men - Softcover

Bouldrey, Brian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1573220035 ISBN 13: 9781573220033

Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover, 1995

Synopsis

A collection of essays by gay men of many religions describes their coming-to-terms with religions that denounce them and includes the words of such figures as Lev Raphael, Frank Browning, Micheal Nava, and Fenton Johnson.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Sadly and somewhat ironically, 25 years after the gay-empowering Stonewall Rebellion, the term "gay lifestyle" still connotes narcissism and superficiality in the popular mind. Of course, the diverse reality of the inner and outer lives of gay men defies such reductionism. And this collection of 21 autobiographical essays by gifted gay writers of varied social and racial backgrounds movingly documents the variety of gay spirituality. In total, the essays amply validate the introductory claims by Bouldrey (The Genius of Desire) that "now more than ever, the issues religion takes up are those most important to gay men" in "learning to embrace the whole of their lives." How the devastating ravages of AIDS have nurtured this quest for wholeness is eloquently distilled by Mark Doty, Felice Picano and Philip Gambone, while Michael Nava and Frank Browning intriguingly compare t the liberating gay experience of coming out to the Christian experience of being "born again." Others, including Andrew Holleran, David Plante, Lev Raphael, Brad Gooch and Michael Lowenthal, trace the lingering resonances of Roman Catholic childhoods, search for personal meaning in Jewish heritages or define the intersections of physical desire and spiritual longing. Although the essays lack uniform emotional intensity, there is surprisingly no bitterness (not even from an unfrocked Mormon bishop), but there is much thirst for reconciliation in this stellar gathering of revelations about the divine agape that unites all men of good will regardless of their sexual orientation. BOMC and QPB main selections.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

This essay collection, compiled by Bouldrey (The Genius of Desire, Ballantine, 1993), examines the struggles of faith of 21 gay male writers, including Andrew Holleran, Lev Raphael, and Michael Nava. Spiritual hunger, the need for guidance, and thoughts of death bring each author to contemplate the mystery of spirituality and the tempestuous relationship between spirituality and sexuality. Some of the men are able to overcome the malleable pubescent stage of life and resolve the raging tempest. Thus, D.G. Miller writes in his essay of stuffing his face with "Wonderbread, the bread of eternal life" to avoid the perils of hell, while Fenton Johnson writes as a Southern boy raised with manners and having no interest in crashing a party to which he has been "so expressly disinvited." These essays are passionate reminders of those who reach out for richer spiritual life. As Alfred Corn writes, "I know that I am myself because God wanted me to be whom I am, and that God rejoices with me in my life as a gay man." For popular collections.?L. Kriz, Sioux City P.L., Ia.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 1573220035
• ISBN 13: 9781573220033
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 314