Broken Hearts and New Creations: Intimations of a Great Reversal

The latest collection of theological offerings from James Alison has all the brilliance, wit and panache that have made him one of the most recognisable and influential contemporary Catholic writers. Alison continues to develop the implications for theology and religion of the insights of the French literary critic and philosopher Rene Girard, which expose the violence hidden at the heart of our culture. He shows how Girard's concepts of mimetic desire and the scapegoat-mechanism both confirm and transform our understanding of Christianity.

Celebrated for his firm but gentle insistence on facing down current ecclesiastical teaching-on homosexuality with the question "Yes, but is it true?", and his wry observations as the church flails around on gay issues, Alison is also admired and enjoyed for the freshness and verve of his interpretations of scripture, for his dazzling word play and teasing connections, surprises and reversals.

Unforgettable and moving, these remarkable essays show James Alison at his irrepressible best. Far from beleaguered or rancorous, this is a gay Catholic voice speaking out of unsentimental love for the church, in spite of its lies and cruelties, and from joy and delight in the life of faith.

James Alison is a Catholic theologian, priest, and author. After studies with the Dominicans in Oxford and at the Jesuit Theology Faculty in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, he has become a travelling teacher, lecturer and retreat leader. Having lived and worked in Mexico, Bolivia, Chile, and the United States as well as his native England, he is currently based in Brazil. He is the author of Knowing Jesus, Raising Abel: The Recovery of the Eschatological Imagination, The Joy of Being Wrong, Faith Beyond Resentment, On Being Liked and Undergoing God.