One of the dual joys and curses of the blogosphere is how finding one intriguing post can quickly lead, by a series of links, to any number of others, taking one along a multitude of paths which diverge, clash with each other, or suddenly create new resonance for other recent readings. This is stimulating, but also distracting.

I have been quiet here over the past week or so, as I have had some personal distractions which left me short of time for a few days, and then I felt the need to focus on some reading, backroom work and reflection rather than simply writing reactive posts to current news. The results have been largely productive (I think), with new sources for materials, some fascinating new insights and ideas to share, and a clearer conception of how I want to move ahead. The challenge will be knowing how to get all these conflicting channels down, before being distracted and going off at a tangent once again.

For example, last night I was intrigued by a post at Jesus in Love on “Queer Disciples in the Bible“, which introduces an academic article titled “Dandy Discipleship_ A Queering of Mark’s Male Disciples“ in the New Zealand peer-reviewed Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality (JMMS) . As Kittredge had usefully included a link to the original article, I followed it - and was delighted to find that this is one of those rare beasts, an open access journal - which meant that I could browse further in both the current issue and the archives - which I did with profit.

In the current issue , the article immediately following the one on queering Mark’s disciples was titled “Constructing Masculinity, De Utero Patris from the Womb of the Father“, which immediately caught my eye. Just yesterday, I was reading “Queer Trinity” in Gerard Loughlin‘s “Queer Theology: Rethinking the Western Body (BBPG)“, which had me dazzled and completely captivated for its elucidation of the gender queer Trinity, ideas which kept me engrossed and thoughtful for long after I put the book down - and which was the first time I had come across the reference to the phrase “the womb of the Father”, which originated at the Council of Toledo. This is an important concept which I dearly want to share - as soon as I feel confident that I can do so without distorting the theology behind it.

Exploring the archives, I then came across a review of “Hungochani“, a book on the history of homosexuality in Southern Africa. For all the noise in the press about modern popular opposition to “homosexuality” as being supposedly foreign to African tradition, I know that this is simply not true. The records of early explorers and ethnographers have shown clearly that same-sex erotic practices and gender fluidity were recognized across all regions of the continent before the advent of the colonial period. It is not homosexuality that was introduced by the European colonists, but homophobia which was imposed by the missionaries - just as modern African homophobia is being stirred up and enflamed by Western evangelists. So that was guaranteed to catch my eye - I will be shortly be posting extracts from that review, too.

Meanwhile, I have been exploring some extensive lists of historical figures, and classifying them by field of activity for my “Queers in History” pages. In doing so, I have been finding many more notable gay cardinals and bishops than I was previously aware of, and also some new saints and quasi-saints , which need to be written up - as soon as I can verify my information. I will also be expanding my existing collection of mostly clerical Queers in History, to include selections of monarchs, generals, politicians, and (later) some other groupings: from the worlds of sports and business for instance. (And music, art and literature - but really, that’s too easy.)

In between all of this, I am continuing to update my bibliographies, on gay & lesbian theology, on Scripture, spirituality, queer history, science and anthropology- and that’s just for starters. As each list takes some basic shape, I will start to post them, and then expand continually, together with occasional reviews and readers’ guides for the more important books .

So, I’ve been quiet the last week - but not idle. I’m back, and ready to begin again, posting regular commentary, but also (which is more important to me), collecting information of more lasting value, introducing important ideas of others, useful resources, and retrievals from queer history, inside and outside the church.