Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Religious Culture examines the role of Christian history in 19th century definitions of homosexual identity. Frederick S. Roden charts the emergence of the modern homosexual in relation to religious, not exclusively sociological discourses. Positing Catholicism as complementary to classical Greece, he challenges the separatism of sexuality and religion in critical practice. Moving from Newman and Rossetti, to Hopkins, Wilde, and Michael Field amongst others, this book claims a new literary history, bringing together gay studies and theology in Victorian literature.

Frederick S. Roden is Assistant Professor of English at University of Connecticut.

"His book represents a valuable synthesis of contemporary queer scholarship...profoundly worthwhile for the original research..."--Eibhear Walshe, The Oscholars
'Roden's rich book shows how Victorian Catholicisms could provide both faces and disguises for same-sex love. From Newman to Wilde and Christina Rossetti to "Michael Field," he recovers the power of religion to sustain homoerotic lives for women and men who were and were not "homosexual". Consider it an Introduction to the Devout Queer Life by a deft reader and astute believer.' - Mark Jordan, Emory University
"[Roden's] highly informative and insightful scholarly study proves essential for an understanding of lesbian writing in the first half of the twentieth century, even as it illuminates the second half of the nineteenth."--Margaret D. Stetz, University of Delaware