"Openness Unhindered" by Rosaria Butterfield. A Short Review

Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with ChristOpenness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

With hundreds of reviews already splattered across the internet, I'll leave the more detailed analysis for others. Simply put, Rosaria Champagne Butterfield's 206 page paperback, "Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ," is a book worth snatching up and pouring over! The subtitle displays the shape of the book's content, which tackles a hot subject from the author's unique, first-hand perspective. It is an easily readable book.

Butterfield covers the categories of sexual orientation and identity, and their genealogical ancestry in Freud and Foucault. She also takes up the performance and perimeters of sanctification in union with Christ, and how this affects our deepest identity. As she observes, sanctification in union with Christ "means that while you may still have sinful desires, God equips you to not act on them. If you, by temperament and practice, have a problem with the sin of anger, God will give to you through his gift of sanctification (as you respond in love by applying yourself to the means of grace) the ability to control yourself" (53). There are some deeply liberating and freeing descriptions between these covers; words that will lift hearts and set captives free!

"Openness Unhindered"speaks with sense and sensibility. For those who have never struggled with homosexual attractions, there can be a hardness and harshness that burbles to the surface. Something of a gag reflex. And Butterfield gives the reader a better, more gracious angle; one that will help to rouse a sober-minded charitableness. In all of our engagements and involvements with others over these issues, it's always important to remember that people are not their positions or their problems (146). I highly recommend the book.

You can purchase the book here: Openness Unhindered

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