Walk about Zion, go round about her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels; that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God for ever and ever. He will be our guide for ever. (Ps 48, 12-14) The best analogy I know for Transubstantiation – the conversion,…

Originally published by the God’s Friends, Saint Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church’s magazine The English Catholic theologian James Alison has been called one of today’s most lucid and exciting writers on our relationship with the divine. He has lived and worked in the U.K., the U.S., and South America and is the author of several books,…

The transcript of the interview about Atonement by the Australian broadcaster RN for its radio programme, Encounter. James Alison (interview): My real concern as a man of faith and as a theologian, it’s really about the linking of vengeance to God, the linking of violence to God, that God is a vengeful person whose vengeance needs…

A transcript of the talk given in Brisbane, Australia, in August 2004. I’m going to try to defend a thesis with you: that Christianity is a priestly religion which understands that it is God’s overcoming of our violence by substituting himself for the victim of our typical sacrifices that opens up our being able to…

The transcript of the Religion Report, a radio programme of an Australian broadcaster, RN Well British, gay, Catholic, priest theologian, James Alison delivered the Annual Morpeth Lecture last week for Newcastle University, and the cathedral, the Anglican Cathedral in Newcastle. He’s the author of a number of books, including ‘The Joy of Being Wrong’ and a…

 A presentation for the Sarum Consultation on Human Sexuality and the Churches, 9-10 February 2004. Thank you very much for inviting me to come and share some thoughts with you today as part of this consultation. The thoughts are, I’m afraid, going to be somewhat disjointed, but I hope that one or other of them…

A lecture given in Boston College on 18th November 2003. [*] It is a very great honour for me to have been asked to address you this evening as part of this pioneering space for discussion in your University and our Church. It is an ever greater honour that any of you should turn out to participate…

A talk for Fordham University Catholic Chaplaincy, 11 November 2003. This evening I would like to talk with you about honesty, not as about something obvious, but as about something problematic. This is not merely because it is difficult for me to be honest – and it is as difficult for me as for anyone…

The Roman Catholic Caucus of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement held a meeting in St Anne’s Church, Soho on Sunday 3rd August 2003 to respond to the UK government’s proposals concerning same-sex partnership rights. The following was an impromptu theological/pastoral contribution by James Alison, put into writing after the event. Thank you for inviting…

Talk for the Julian Fest, of the Order of Julian of Norwich, held at Schoenstatt Retreat Center, Waukesha, Wisconsin, on 10 May 2003. Castellano | Deutsch What I would like to do today is to honour my compatriot, Julian of Norwich, by attempting to boost something which was dear to her heart: contemplation. I want to do…

Le héros souterrain est un être fasciné qui s’écrase piteusement et tragiquement sur tous les obstacles qui se trouvent sur son chemin, à l’instar du papillon de nuit qui se brûle à la lampe ou de deux Boeings s’encastrant dans les tours de la puissance, et cela parce qu’ils s’occupent plus de l’obstacle que de…

A talk prepared for a day retreat with Sebastian Moore on Contemplation in a world of violence: Girard, Merton, Tolle, organised by the Thomas Merton Society, held at Downside Abbey, Bath 3 November 2001. Appeared in the On Being Liked. I take it that contemplation is a certain sort of seeing. I take it from Girard that…

Introduction to the book Faith Beyond Resentment: Fragments Catholic and Gay “How” Joseph must have thought, as he donned his Egyptian vizier’s robe, “am I going to enable my brothers to share all this abundance which has been given me? They think I’m probably dead, and effectively that’s what they wanted. They are a long way…

Who appears in our midst during midnight mass? I suppose most of us, nudged along by the ceremony of the placing of the babe in the manger, assume that it is the infant Christ. But the one who is present in our midst at midnight mass, as at every eucharist, is the crucified and risen…

A sermon for the Good Shepherd Sunday on the Girardian Lectionary

Chapter 4 of the Faith Beyond Resentment: Fragments Catholic and Gay Русский

A series of coincidences in early 1985 led me to René Girard’s Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World. As I staggered through its third part I found myself being read like an open book, feeling like the woman at the well of Samaria, as she returned to her compatriots to say: “Come and meet…