Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest <Embed>
Buy New
$11.14
  • List Price: $15.95
  • Save: $4.81 (30%)
FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Gay and Catholic: Accepti... has been added to your Cart
Want it Thursday, Aug. 11? Order within and choose this date at checkout.
Ship to:
Select a shipping address:
To see addresses, please
or
Please enter a valid US zip code.
or

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 2 images

Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith Paperback – October 20, 2014

by
Eve Tushnet (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Eve Tushnet Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Eve Tushnet (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 37 customer reviews
See all 2 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
$11.78
— —
Paperback
"Please retry"
$11.14
$9.22 $7.71
No Greater Love by Mother Teresa
No Greater Love
The popular new release from Mother Teresa. Learn more
$11.14 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
click to open popover

Frequently Bought Together

  • Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith
  • +
  • Spiritual Friendship: Finding Love in the Church as a Celibate Gay Christian
  • +
  • Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality
Total price: $33.51
Buy the selected items together
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
The latest book club pick from Oprah
"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead is a magnificent novel chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. See more

Product Details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Ave Maria Press (October 20, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1594715424
  • ISBN-13: 978-1594715426
  • Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #200,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsOffering Love outside Marriage and the Monastery
By Leah L. on October 16, 2014
Format: Paperback
Saying someone has a vocation to singleness is about as helpful as an atheist, when asked about their philosophy, saying that they *don't* believe in God. What you want to know is what people *do* believe and *are* called to, not to hear their life defined as a negation of some fuller idea.

Tushet, as a gay Catholic convert, quickly realized she wasn't going to wind up in a marriage or a monastery, and had to work on figuring out *how* to live a vocation not to singleness, generally, but to sacrificial love.

Our church and our culture doesn't offer very many models for profound relationships outside of the romantic realm--dismissing people as "just friends"--so Tushnet draws on historical records of vowed friendship, interviews with people living in intentional community, and her own experiences offering radical hospitality to give her readers vivid icons to guide them in their own discernment.

Since I read this book, I've been recommending it frequently, to plenty of people that are neither gay nor Catholic. The problem that Tushnet is working on is central to a life well lived.
1 Comment 46 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsA humorous and compelling model for discourse
By Matt Jones on October 20, 2014
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Eve is a breath of fresh air in an often toxic atmosphere of hypocrisy, obliviousness, and antagonism. She writes with wit and clarity about difficult topics, and you can't help but think that *this* is the tone the conversation should have had all along - frank, honest, and humorous/serious when appropriate. I didn't realize just how much I missed that kind of tone until I spent a couple nights with Eve's book; the sensationalistic, straw-men-laden offerings that clog up the internet today seem utterly inexcusable when contrasted with the compellingly human prose in "Gay and Catholic".

No matter one's beliefs about the topics Eve writes about, her tone and rhetorical posture provide a beautiful example of how to speak about contentious subjects with grace and nuance.

Though I'm a crumb-scrounging schismatic (read: Protestant :P), this has easily become my favorite book about faith and sexuality, and I can't recommend it highly enough.
Comment 24 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
2.0 out of 5 starsCaveat Lector
By Josh on January 2, 2015
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
I really wanted to like this book. After the brouhaha that was the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, I was looking for a good book on the Church and homosexuality, one that combined faithfulness to church teaching with sensitivity to the plight of those who struggle with same-sex attraction. I read that this was such a book; unfortunately, I’m afraid it isn’t.

This is not to say, however, that Tushnet’s book is without real virtues. First of all, she is a fine writer, and the first part of the book, her conversion story, is a delightfully thoughtful and funny account of her entrance into the Catholic Church. The second half of the book, on living a life of fidelity to Christ, helpfully emphasizes the idea of vocation, defined not as a calling to the religious life but as a mission to live as a disciple of Christ, regardless of one’s station in life. Tushnet opened my eyes to the real difficulties facing same-sex-attracted Christians trying to live out their vocations while remaining celibate. She rightly laments the failure of many Catholic institutions to provide pastoral help for such people, especially the young.

But these real strengths (and others) are unfortunately outweighed by what I can only regard as her rejection of a good chunk of Catholic teaching on sexuality, a rejection which colors many of her suggestions in the book. Of course, Tushnet doesn’t see it that way, insisting that she accepts church teaching and is only dissatisfied with the way that teaching is presented.Read more ›
16 Comments 83 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsMy favorite book I've read on the theme
By Wesley Hill on October 17, 2014
Format: Paperback
I've read a lot of books on Christianity and homosexuality, and this is my favorite one. In fact, I would say that the stories and ideas presented here (which I originally read on the author's blog over the course of several years) have changed my life.

Eve Tushnet's reflections on how Catholics and other Christians who uphold a traditional Christian sexual ethic can move from focusing on what gay people ought *not* to do to embracing a "vocation of yes" -- embracing God's call to us to love and be loved -- have permanently shifted the way I think about homosexuality and the way I am trying to live my life. I can't say enough good about this book, and I expect to return to it over and over again.
Comment 24 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 stars"There are few treasures of the Church more beautiful and more forgotten than its theory and practice of ...
By Calah Alexander on October 18, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
"There are few treasures of the Church more beautiful and more forgotten than its theory and practice of friendship. It seems every generation of queer Catholics must rediscover this neglected legacy and be startled by it: the 'wedded brothers' buried together in English cemeteries, the vows of kinship taken by friends in the Eastern Church, the intimacy and wry, practical wisdom of St. Aelred's Dialogues."

That is how Eve Tushnet opens the seventh chapter of Gay and Catholic, titled "Friendship in Theology and History." That's also the part where my jaw hit the ground and stayed there. Her book is packed with brilliant insight and fascinating memoir, but her ruminations on spiritual friendship put her book above and beyond what the title suggests. Far from being a niche book for a niche market, this is a book for everyone, gay or straight, Catholic or non-religious. If you are a human being living on earth and have contact with other human beings, then you need to read this book, particularly the sections on friendship -- a type of relationship that has deteriorated rapidly in Western culture. Eve Tushnet goes a long way toward reminding us of the depth and and importance of same-sex friendship, especially for gay people.

That's not to say that the rest of the book isn't good -- the rest of the book is pretty spectacular, actually. Her retelling of her childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood is self-aware, honest, and unflinching. And despite the fact that I come from a vastly different background and am living a very different vocation, I was surprised to find that her writing about living a vocation was hands-down the best thing I've ever read on the subject. It was practical, honest, mercifully unflowery, and full of things I needed to hear.Read more ›
Comment 23 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsGay, Catholic, Families and Friendships

I didn't have expectations. Eve visited our church so I read her book. This is book is full of her personal insights and experiences. Read more

Published 17 days ago by Nora
4.0 out of 5 starsDifferent/New Insights and Tips for Straights

(Please note that when I say 'gay' I mean anyone with same-sex attraction, including bisexuals, just to keep it easier for me. Read more

Published 29 days ago by J. Marts
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Excellent! I loved it.

Published 3 months ago by Chantel
5.0 out of 5 starsEvery Catholic needs to read this gem.

I love this book because before being about sexuality, or community, or even larger theological discourses, it is about the vocation to love which lies at the heart of the Catholic... Read more

Published 13 months ago by Katherine
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Well sculpted and articulated opinion piece. I do not think that Ģod wills punishment for being gay.

Published 16 months ago by BJ
2.0 out of 5 starsWhere's the Catholicism?

I, too, wanted to like this book, and I was excited by the first few chapters. Then the troubles began. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Margeaux
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Very pleased with product.

Published 17 months ago by Stephen Roe
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat book on friendship

Excellent book. I am neither gay nor Catholic, but I found this book to be well-written and incredibly insightful. Read more

Published 17 months ago by Whitney
5.0 out of 5 starsNot just for gays and catholics!

Not gay or catholic? Read this anyway! I learned a lot about myself and found new ways of giving friendship, rather than taking friendship. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Yvonna Graham
5.0 out of 5 starsI would recommend this book

While I am not same sex attracted, I wanted to read this book because I suspected at least some of what Eve Tushnet would have to say would speak to me as a divorced Catholic... Read more

Published 18 months ago by Mary Pamela Hauser Olarte

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway
This item: Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith
Set up a giveaway

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.