1st Edition

Bisexuality, Religion and Spirituality Critical Perspectives

Edited By Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip, Alex Toft Copyright 2020
    212 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    210 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book brings together the work of an international team of experts investigating the intersection of bisexuality, religion and spirituality. Drawing from disciplines such as sociology, psychology, theology, religious studies and literary studies, it critically examines, both theoretically and empirically, the lived experiences of bisexual people of diverse religious faiths and spiritualities, in the context of the UK, Canada, Lebanon, Turkey, Australia and the USA. As an important and insightful exploration of an under-researched and often misunderstood minority, this book will appeal to scholars across the social sciences with interests in sexuality, religion, spirituality and identity.

    1. Bisexuality, Religion and Spirituality: Instigating a Dialogue

    Alex Toft and Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip

    2. Bisexuality, (Non)Religion and Spirituality in Canadian Young Adults

    Heather Shipley and Pamela Dickey Young

    3. Identifying as Young, Disabled and Bisexual within Evangelical Christianity: Abigail’s Story

    Alex Toft and Anita Franklin

    4. Bisexual Erasure and Religious Spaces: Experiences of Young Adults in the United Kingdom

    Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip and Sarah-Jane Page

    5. Ritual and Liminality: Bisexuality within Christianity and Paganism

    Douglas Ezzy and Bronwyn Fielder

    6. Negotiating Sexuality and Spirituality: The Lived Experiences of Bisexual Persons

    Alex Toft

    7. Ambiguities, Authenticity and Actualisation: Life Story Research with a Bisexual Christian

    Chris Greenough

    8. ‘Sweet Blasphemy’: Elif Shafak, Bisexuality and Sufism

    Cheryl Stobie

    9. Religion, Male Bisexuality and Sexual Risk in Lebanon

    Ismaël Maatouk and Rusi Jaspal

    10. Depression and Suicidality among Bisexual Christians

    Carol A Shepherd

    11. Bisexual Wellbeing: Impacts of Current Religion and Childhood Experiences

    Margaret Robinson and Shayan Asadi

    Biography

    Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip is Professor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham, UK. His recent books include Sexual Identities: A Multi-faith Exploration of Young Adults (with Sarah-Jane Page), Cosmopolitan Dharma: Race, Sexuality, and Gender in British Buddhism (with Sharon Smith and Sally Munt), Understanding Young Buddhists: Living out Ethical Journeys (with Sarah-Jane Page), Critical Pedagogy, Sexuality Education, and Young People (with Fida Sanjakdar) and Intersecting Sexuality and Religion: Sociological Perspectives (with Sarah-Jane Page). He is currently writing, with Carl Ridler, a book provisionally entitled Intersecting and Contested Identities: Gay and Bisexual Arab Men in Everyday Life.



    Alex Toft is a Research Fellow in the Nottingham Centre for Children, Young People and Families at Nottingham Trent University. His research focuses upon sexuality, gender, disability, spirituality and identity. His publications include Young, Disabled and LGBT+: Voices, Identities and Intersections (with Anita Franklin), and he has published in journals such as Sexualities and Journal of LGBT Youth. He has worked on projects funded by organisations such as the NSPCC and the Fundamental Rights Agency (EU), and recently received British Academy funding to conduct research exploring the negotiation of identity in the lives of young disabled LGBT+ people.

    "The Editors of this volume bring together interdisciplinary voices to construct a vivid dialogue about bisexuality and religious identities and spaces. Not only are there wide-ranging disciplinary contributions from sociologists, psychologists, theologists, scholars of religion and literature, this volume brings together international work from UK, Canada, Lebanon, Turkey, Australia and the USA. Furthermore, as much previous research on the topic of bisexuality and religion has focussed solely on the sexuality’s intersection with Christian identities, there is an expansion of work in this book which encompasses Sufsm, Buddhism, Islam, Paganism, Judaism and non-religion into the conversation, broadening the scope of the field vastly"

    -Samuel Lawton, Psychology of Sexualities Review