Searching for Religious Eroticism: The Solitary and the Ocular in Gay Religious Studies

Abstract

In this article Jay Johnson responds to the previous papers which have argued for the religious significance of particular forms of gay eroticism. Jay is critical of the definitions of religions employed, which he believes are far too broad to be helpful. He also questions the assumption, which he believes to be prominent in the work of many gay scholars of religion, that for gay men ‘our eroticism is our religion’. Jay makes the point that this is an extravagant claim that may contribute to a near narcissistic obsession with the male form which is already a dangerous undercurrent in Western theology. However, he nevertheless believes that the papers he critiques are reaching, through the vehicle of religious eroticism, towards an intense longing for communion. This, Christians believe, results from God's own desire for humanity which finds its resolution through incorporation into the erotic community of the body of Christ.