Chris Mounsey.  Being the Body of Christ: Towards a
Twenty-First-Century Homosexual Theology for the Anglican Church.
London  Equinox Publishing, 2011.  240 pp.  $99.95 (cloth), ISBN
978-1-84553-951-1; $29.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-84553-952-8.

Reviewed by Laura Ramsay (University of Nottingham)
Published on H-Histsex (October, 2012)
Commissioned by Timothy W. Jones

Homosexuality and Anglicanism: Exploring a Troubled Communion through
Twentieth-Century Fiction

The role of religion is particularly under-explored in the history of
modern sexuality. Acting against this trend, Chris Mounsey's latest
contribution to sexuality studies is an in-depth examination of the
themes of homosexuality and Christianity in twentieth-century English
fiction. Mounsey finds the twentieth-century novel to be an
interesting medium through which to explore intersections of the
spiritual and the sexual. His book analyzes the work of five English
writers in an attempt to trace a literary tradition of exasperation
at Christianity's reluctance to accept homosexuality as a legitimate
sexual identity. Mounsey's own experiences--his sense of rejection by
the Anglican Church because of his sexuality and his disappointment
at the church's reluctance to accept its homosexual clergy--provide
the backdrop to the study.

Part 1 employs literary sources to explore the religious lives of two
homosexual men in further detail than current critical studies.
Chapter 1 examines Oscar Wilde's "The Fisherman and His Soul,"
written in 1891, which exposes the tragedy of a relationship falling
outside the accepted social and religious norms of sexual behavior.
Mounsey suggests that this children's tale is a representation of the
religious and sexual paradox that colored Wilde's life; his desire
for religion was continually met by the antagonism of his desire for
unauthorized sexual congress. Since the churches required Wilde to
renounce his "immutable sexuality," he was forced to reject organized
religion (p. 11). Mounsey juxtaposes his reading of "The Fisherman
and His Soul" with E. F. Benson's _David Blaize_ trilogy, a tragedy
about sexual deviation charting the protagonist's struggle to come to
terms with the Anglican Church's demand for homosexuals to be
continent. Published between 1916 and 1924, this series has not
previously been the subject of academic work. Mounsey describes
Benson's predicament as an Anglican and likely a homosexual. Benson
denied his sexuality in order to remain within the church. Guided by
his faith, he found abstention and asexuality to be the only choices
available.[1]

Mounsey successfully presents the tensions between spirituality and
sexuality in the literature, interweaving this with biographical
information, in order to show the ways in which Wilde and Benson
negotiated their religion and sexuality. Such an endeavor makes an
important contribution to sexuality studies by focusing on the ways
in which religion engaged with contemporary changes in constructions
of sex and sexuality. Nevertheless, Mounsey's use of these sources is
particularly problematic. His interpretations are highly subjective.
Mounsey admits that his reading of the _David Blaize_ trilogy "sounds
a little far fetched" at times (p. 100). The simplistic presentation
of the Anglican Church as antimodern, backward looking, and
repressive is also disappointing. Mounsey suggests that the church
"effectively crushed Benson" and "has not moved very far from that
position in the last century" (p. 7). Although Mounsey implies an
appreciation of the historical background, he presents a very narrow
view of the church's engagement with issues of sexuality during the
twentieth century. This is in contrast to historians working to
present the full complexities of the church's response to, and
engagement with, new theories of sexuality throughout the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries.[2]

Part 2 traces the development of homosexual theology, analyzing the
literary works of three writers. The theme of this section is the
theology of the body. Mounsey develops Edward Carpenter's concept of
the homosexual gaze, a same-sex look of recognition, and Jeanette
Winterson's plea to defy heteronormative expectations and
objectification and to invent ourselves in love. Carpenter's poem
_Towards Democracy _(1905), and his work of sexology, _The
Intermediate Sex _(1908), are read as a challenge to the Anglican
tradition. Carpenter is said to assert that homosexuals should not
deny their bodies in their spiritual struggle to find meaning, since
revelations can result from bodily experiences. Alan Hollinghurst's
_The Swimming-Pool Library_ (1989) is read as an exploration of the
homosexual's moral choice between vengeance and forgiveness, giving
"a clear call for spiritual absolution for those who have knowingly
committed an injustice" (p. 9). Set in a society where sexual actions
are real rather than implied by the homosexual gaze, _The
Swimming-Pool Library_ suggests that we must forgive authoritarian
institutions like the church for trying to mold us according to their
image. Mounsey's final analysis is of Jeanette Winterson's _The
PowerBook _(2000) and _Lighthousekeeping_ (2004). Winterson explores
the problems of postmodern, scientific, and religious theories of
language, all of which fail to fully describe the essential
experience of being human. Her solution is to embrace the theology of
the body. Although we typically think of ourselves as unitary and
finite, Winterson urges us to invent ourselves in love in order that
our multiple and infinite human condition be revealed to us. In the
conclusion to part 2, Mounsey suggests a solution to his predicament,
based on the implications of the theology of the body in his daily
life. He works from a series of revelations to explore his own
experiences as a man rejected by his church and as someone who is
newly blind. He concludes that, if we are to be like Christ, we must
be challenged by our bodies so that we can learn to fully understand
our perceptions.

In general, the book requires a firmer historical context as its
basis to avoid the tendency toward anachronism. Mounsey sometimes
seems to be reading his own experiences onto authors of the past,
rather than discovering the experiences of others on their own terms.
His work, however, provides fresh insight to a long-standing and
complex debate. He sees no reason why the church "should continue to
drag its feet in reforming itself" and accepting its "active and fine
homosexual clergy" (p. 178). In looking for a solution, his
disheartening conclusion is that the only options are to either
follow Benson on his path to asexuality or to express one's
spirituality outside of mainstream Anglicanism. The refreshing
personal urgency of this book should serve to remind readers that
this debate is beyond the academic. For some it is a difficult and
heartbreaking reality.

Notes

[1]. For further literature on the Benson family's unconventional
sexuality, see Martha Vicinus, _Intimate Friends: Women Who Loved
Women, 1778-1928_ (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004); and
Martha Vicinus, "The Gift of Love: Nineteenth-Century Religion and
Lesbian Passion," _Nineteenth-Century Contexts_ 23 (2001): 241-264.
See also John Tosh, "Domesticity and Manliness in the Victorian
Middle Class: The Family of Edward White Benson," in _Manful
Assertions: Masculinities in Britain since 1800_, ed. Michael Roper
and John Tosh (London: Routledge, 1991), 43-73.

[2]. Matthew Grimley, "Law, Morality and Secularisation: The Church
of England and the Wolfenden Report, 1954-1967," _Journal of
Ecclesiastical History_ 60 (2009): 725-741; Timothy Jones, "The
Stained Glass Closet: Celibacy and Homosexuality in the Church of
England to 1955," _Journal of the History of Sexuality_ 20 (2011):
132-152; Hugh McLeod, "Homosexual Law Reform, 1953-1967," in _From
the Reformation to the Permissive Society: A Miscellany in
Celebration of the 400th Anniversary of Lambeth Palace Library_, ed.
Melanie Barber, Stephen Taylor, and Gabriel Sewell (Woodbridge:
Boydell & Brewer, 2010), 657-678; and Graham Willett, "The Church of
England and the Origins of Homosexual Law Reform," _Journal of
Religious History_ 33 (2009): 418-434.

Citation: Laura Ramsay. Review of Mounsey, Chris, _Being the Body of
Christ: Towards a Twenty-First-Century Homosexual Theology for the
Anglican Church_. H-Histsex, H-Net Reviews. October, 2012.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=36763

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
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