A few years back, Continuum published In The Closet of the Vatican. Frederic Martel s reporting exposed the hypocrisy of the Church and especially its cardinals on homosexuality. He reckoned that something like 70% of Vatican officials were gay and many of them living (fairly) openly with partners. There were tales of gay orgies and priests being so badly paid that they took to male prostitution to earn a living.

The Church today has had to face up to the huge progress made on LGBT issues in society and can no longer sweep it under the carpet. James Alison s book is a serious, nuanced, but ultimately deeply radical attempt to re-orientate our scriptural understanding of homosexuality. It is an attempt, as per his subtitle, to allow the church to move on.

He does this by revisiting the biblical texts. Many believe that the Bible is clear. All homosexual activity is forbidden. Alison, who knows Greek and Hebrew, proves in this book that this is not the case. The meaning of the biblical texts is far more subtle and enlightening. In that sense he is following on from a revolution in theology which is exemplified by the documentary 1946. It may well be that the bible doesn t forbid homosexuality at all.

The Catechism (also published by Bloomsbury Continuum) says that homosexuality is intrinsically disordered in human beings. Alison shows why this is absurd.