Undergoing God: Dispatches from the Scene of a Break-In

by James Alison

What do Rowan Williams, Stanley Hauerwas, Rene Girard, Richard Rohr, Timothy Radcliffe, Monica Furlong, Richard Rohr, Andrew Sullivan, and Mark Jordan have in common beside their Christian faith? Answer: the fact that they have all heaped praise on one or another of James Alison's books. "Intellectual dynamite and spiritual joy" (Rohr); "wit, clarity, depth and surprises" (Williams); "deeply moving and liberating" (Radcliffe). Perhaps James Keenan has put it most memorably: "Not since C.S. Lewis has an English Christian summoned his readers into such holy conversations." And Andrew Sullivan has spoken for the community most touched by Allison's work: "a rich resource for gay Catholics trying to reconcile their own deep and profound faith with the hostility of the hierarchy." About half of his new book deals with lesbian and gay issues, particularly in light of the the latest Vatican ukase banning gays from seminaries, and the rest with a variety of tropes central to Christian faith and life: reconciliation, the Eucharist, psychology and evil, worship in a violent world. But whatever the topic Alison turns to he writes with the edgy brilliance of a "break-in" artist who is always full of surprises.

Genres: Theology, Spirituality

246 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2006

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

[Kj · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know it's a good sign when you find yourself recommending a book to five people in a week, and you haven't even finished reading it. This is what happened to me with James Alison's compelling, surprising and gallant theological study into issues of atonement and spiritual/relational honesty. In both parts I and II of the book, Alison explores the grace that occurs when someone willingly enters the place of shame so someone else does not have to. Alison defines as honesty as distinct from sincerity or “holding fast to the truth”, in that honesty should be “something of which we are so massively the recipients that we can’t really be its brandishers as if it were our own” (180). Coming from a gay Catholic priest, Alison's message of power-relinquishment and humility/openness in the face of disingenuousness and oppression by the larger Christian community, is astonishing, gut-wrenching and redeeming. This book is as much confession as it is plea, and as such, creates the very space for difference and diversity that Alison humbly and yearningly asks of from the Church. It is a beautiful plea, and daringly honest confession.

"...the search for reconciliation becomes something enflamed by other fires. Something rather like a deep unconcern about myself is born, and a desire to be reconciled with the other because I know that both he and I will be much more...if we are reconciled. That is to say, triumph for me passes through his being made whole and not his diminishment." 117-118.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful, witty (which is hard for a book of theology essays), and dense. I read and re-read the chapters on worship and atonement because it was completely off the map in terms of what I had thought about before. His essays in the latter half of the book on being GLBT and Catholic were particularly helpful.

[Dragan Radović · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Undergoing" is the best word that can use to describe my relationship with this book.
I'm a different person after having read it.
I'm recommending it to those I know who have left high-control religions.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alison's book feels authentically conservative in its attention to scripture and devotion to Roman Catholic theological tradition while opening new perspectives that offer a path beyond the current impasses within the Church ... especially in relation to the place and value of gay Catholics.

[Fraser Dyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

James Alison is someone I pick up and put down as each chapter is self-contained, usually based on an article published or talk he has given.