Coarse Work: Essays in Theology and Gay Life

by Samuel Ernest

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How does a gay Christian live when the models provided don’t fit?

This essay collection, written over ten years, begins with the author’s more recent work in queer theology and works backward—all the way back into the closet.

Read an excerpt: Excerpt, Coarse Work by Samuel Ernest

“Insightful and yearning.”

–Jack Fritscher
editor emeritus, DRUMMER

“A bright light.”

–Mary E. Hunt
WOMEN’S ALLIANCE FOR THEOLOGY, ETHICS, AND RITUAL

Introduction

Part One

Queer/Christian Collapse: An Invitation to Gay/Queer Theological Writing
Theology and the Body Outside Itself
Gay Ambivalence: On Gay Men and Queer Theology

Part Two

Celibate Writing, Camp Reading
Stringfellow’s Circus: Church and Metaphor
An Introduction to Two Introductions to Dunstan Thompson
An Introduction to The Preface of the 1855 Edition of Leaves of Grass

Afterword: Journal Excerpts

Description

“In putting these essays in print, I hope to put them to rest, like burying the bones of a ghost so it can find peace—rest, at least, for me, as I hope they begin to dance for you.” From the Introduction.

A reverse Bildung in essays, Coarse Work follows the founder of Homodoxy’s developing queer theological vision throughout his course work at Yale Divinity School and the doctoral program in Religious Studies at Yale. It’s an idiosyncratic text for an idiosyncratic reader now in its second printing: the same text with updated fonts.

The first part outlines the theological perspective that gave birth to Homodoxy. These three essays were written during Ernest’s doctoral course work and initially published online at homodoxy.com. The second part consists of four essays written prior to Homodoxy, during the author’s time at Divinity School. They share many of the same topics—gayness, sex, the church, celibacy, poetry, life writing. The book concludes with journal entries from the author’s time as a college student, illustrating the intimate stakes of the questions at hand.

The work in this book leads to one of the main concerns that occupies Ernest’s writing: the concealment of gay sex within theology, including some of its gay and queer varieties.

Coarse Work: Essays in Theology and Gay Life

by Samuel Ernest

Contents

Description

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A Reading by Judy Grahn upon the Founding of Homodoxy Press

Coarse Work