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Anonymous asked:
"

are there any texts you'd recommend for an introduction to the erotic subtext of christianity?

"

as you might be able to guess there is not a lot of theological work out there on the topic because christianity is universally afraid of pussy but off the top of my head:

  • touching our strength: the erotic love as power and the love of god by carter heyward
  • embodiment: an approach to sexuality and christian theology by james b nelson
  • the sex lives of saints: an erotics of ancient hagiography by virginia burrus
  • when did we see you naked: jesus as a victim of sexual abuse, ed. by jayme r reaves
  • from feminist theology to indecent theology AND indecent theology by marcella althaus reid (highly recommend these especially if you’re interested in “subversive” theology or indecent poetics, think sadomasochism, kink, fetish, etc)
  • the art of loving by erich fromm (not a theological text, but i’m reading him in a course right now and he really nicely contextualizes love generally)
  • god, sexuality, and the self by sarah coakley

i also recommend looking at the work of medieval mystics: julian of norwich, mechthild of magdeberg, hadewijch of brabant, bernard of clairvaux, gregory of nyssa, teresa of avila, and catherine of siena. you might want to start here, honestly- their work is easily accessible and nicely shows how erotic union with God is and and has always been part of christian thought. song of songs as well!