Homosexuality: A Symbolic Confusion

by Ruth Tiffany Barnhouse

Embodying an unusual combination of theological and psychiatric insight developed from her own research and medical practice, Dr. Ruth Tiffany Barnhouse develops a comprehensive overview of scientific perspectives and findings as the basis for a re-examination of the religious and social dimensions of homosexuality. The author believes that "if theology ignores science, it runs the risk of setting irrelevant or impossible standards" and that if it is ignorant of the findings, it may come to foolish or irrelevant conclusions.

The author presents a thorough examination of the data and literature on homosexuality; re-examines basic assumptions, generalizations, and conclusions; and presents a unified view. She is not hesitant in expressing dissent from currently popular views–as in her criticism of the American Psychiatric Association's change of the diagnostic classification of homosexuality from deviation to simply "one form of sexual behavior"–and the book can be expected to provoke arguments from all sides.

But, as Dr. Barry Ulanov writes in the Foreword, "This is a nourishing book, a nurturing one. It moves with clarity and grace from the general to the special, from what is, to use the author's terms, to what ought to be. It deals even-handedly with conflagration issues . . . [and] makes clear, beyond controversy, the case for decriminalization of homosexuality."

190 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Henry Sturcke · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the time it appeared, one of the most sensible takes on the issue from the perspective of Christian ethics. Haven't reread it recently, so don't know how it holds up nearly 40 years later.