22 May 2014, The Tablet

God, Sexuality and the Self: an essay ‘On the Trinity’

by Sarah Coakley

It takes three to tango

 
Reviewed by Timothy RadcliffeCambridge UNIVERSITY PRESS, 365pp, £18.99Tablet bookshop price £17.10Tel 01420 592974ALL THE MAJOR Christian Churches are in crisis over sexuality, whether concerning gender roles and ordination, or homosexuality; the teaching of doctrine, especially the Trinity, is often regarded as irrelevant; contemplative prayer and asceticism are marginal to the lives of most Christians. In this brilliant book, Sarah Coakley, the Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, argues that these are all linked, because right desire, right speech about God and contemplative prayer all hang together. Freud was wrong. All talk about God is not really about sex; rather sexual desire is most deeply about desire for God. It is only through the contemplative and asce
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