Sarah Coakley and the New Asceticism

I’ve long had a very high regard for the thinking and writing of Sarah Coakley, in particular her more accessible essays and reflections, for example (Prayer as Divine Propulsion, parts 1 and 2.) I have the majority of her books too, but at the stage of life I’m in its always a challenge making the needful time, when not tired, to read them in a focused, thoughtful, and indeed prayerful way.

One book I don’t have is one that I had on order a few years back. Its publication, presumably, was delayed and then the order was cancelled. Its now back in my book basket: The New Asceticism: Sexuality, Gender and the Quest for God (pub. 5^th November 2015)

“Each chapter of The New Asceticism concentrates on a contentious issue in contemporary theology - the role of women in the churches, homosexuality and the priesthood, celibacy and the future of Christian asceticism - in an original thesis about the nature of desire which may start to heal many contemporary wounds. Professor Coakley is as familiar with the Bible and the Early Fathers as she is with the writings of Freud and Jung, and she draws heavily on Gregory of Nyssa's theology of desire in what she proposes. She points the way through the false modern alternatives of repression and libertinism, agape and eros, recovering a way in which desire can be freed from associations with promiscuity and disorder, and forging a new ascetical vision founded in the disciplines of prayer and attention.”

Table Of Contents

Introduction

1. Pleasure Principles: A theology of desire
2. The Woman at the Altar
3. Other Voices Other Worlds: Homosexuality
4. Trinity Prayer and Sexuality
5. Deepening Practices: Ascetical and Mystical Theology

Mark Vernon has a useful review of the book here, excerpts from which follow:

“…It's a journey through the narrow gate, for sure. The shadow of love's dream is a nightmare, because it continually runs the risk of not getting what it wants, and so forcefully taking what it wants. That's why, in Christian terms, the possessiveness of love must be transformed into the pattern of Christ's love…

…Coakley's work is important because it goes to the heart of what we need to address in Christianity today - not just the problems faced by the church, but what might make Christianity attractive in a culture that yearns for the spiritual dimension and yet doesn't consider that the church has anything substantial to offer it. That's because, in many of the church's current manifestations, it doesn't. But the deep wisdom about desire that's in the tradition, and is always longing to be reawakened, can stir us all anew.”