You Can, If You Want To: Navigating Christian Faith, Conscience, and matters LGBTQ+

by James Alison

What if Christianity was far more liberating than the culture wars suggest? Can the conflict concerning Christianity and homosexuality be viewed from a more interpretative lens? James Alison, a Catholic priest who is also a gay man, has been wrestling with the matter for over forty years.

This luminous and rigorous book dismantles the fear-based binaries which have dominated conversations in the Church. Striving to address potential concerns about accepting LGBTQ+ individuals within the church, James draws on scripture, tradition and his lived experience to form a broader understanding of faith and humanity.

352 pages, Paperback

Published September 2, 2025

About the author

James Alison (b. 1959) is a Catholic theologian, priest and author. He grew up in an evangelical family in England and converted to Catholicism as a teenager. Alison studied at Oxford and earned his doctorate in theology from the Jesuit Faculty in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He was a member of the Dominican order from 1981-1995.

Reviews

[Britt ⋆.˚ ☾⭒.˚]

DNF at page 202. I might come back and finish this someday, but I'm losing patience with the writing style. I think that if I read the phrase "the lamb standing as one slain" or "the horizontal God" one more time, I might scream.