From See Me Naked: Stories of Sexual Exile in American Christianity. Released November 1. 2011. Order.
These are not fables, and they are not compilations. These stories are messy. They do not come together neatly in the end with a moral and a clear sense of direction. Each story has a number of interpretations, and the decisions that each person makes could be debated. One interviewee said to me, “Be sure you tell people that I am still not sure I made the right choices.” That ongoing inner struggle is an important part of each of these stories and of our own. But through stories, we can begin to make sense of where we come from and where we are going. Genevieve, whose story is told in the third section of this book, noted the significance that storytelling, in itself, has had in her own experience. “People who told their stories started getting better,” she said. “The people who kept their stories to themselves didn’t.”
A story, writes Barbara Brown Taylor, “creates a quiet place where one may lay down one’s defenses for awhile. A story does not ask for a decision. Instead, it asks for identification, which is how transformation begins.” That is the hope embedded in this book: that as we cross into the realm of other people’s stories, we might begin our own transformations, we might begin to live more fully and more completely as both spiritual and sexual beings. My hope is that these stories will open up your story and my story, and that telling will change us.
From Julian of Norwich: A Contemplative Biography
Playfully and subtly maneuvering amid political dangers and social limitations, with open curiosity and dry humor, Julian took a heavy world of religious obligation and turned it on its head. In her book, which is both an account of visions she received and a book of spiritual direction and theological reflection, she wrote, "The soul must perform two duties. One is that we reverently marvel. The other is that we humbly endure, ever taking pleasure in God...." The righteousness required of us was simply this: delight in God's good world.
Biography
Amy Frykholm writes on religion, culture and spirituality for The Christian Century and other publications. She is the author of three books ranging in subject matter from the end times to medieval mysticism to contemporary sexuality.
Frykholm started her career in academia, earning a Ph.D. in literature from Duke University. Her first book, Rapture Culture, published by Oxford University Press in 2004, is a study of readers of the apocalyptic Left Behind series. This book explores the connection between reading fiction and articulating religious commitments. Through in-depth conversations with readers, Frykholm assesses how imagination forms and shapes belief.
Frykholm’s second book is Julian of Norwich: A Contemplative Biography. This book brings the revered visionary Julian of Norwich to life through an exploration of the context of 14th century Norwich and a close reading of her A Revelation, the first book written by a woman in the English language.
Frykholm’s current project, See Me Naked: Stories of Sexual Exile in American Christianity, is a collection of nine non-fiction personal histories about the integration of spirituality and sexuality in contemporary America. Frykholm draws on her experience as an interviewer to elicit and then carefully render the stories of nine ordinary people who have struggled with the relationship between their religious beliefs and their sexual experience. This book is scheduled for release by Beacon Press in November of 2011.
Frykholm is an Assistant Editor of The Christian Century, where her primary duties include writing feature stories, identifying contributors and soliciting articles on Christianity, ecumenism, human connection and contemporary life. She is a dedicated cook with a passion for the soup kitchen. She has cooked at the St. George Community Meal in Leadville, Colorado for more than 10 years. Her essays about food, sex and religion are found in various literary and non-literary publications including the recently released The Spirit of Food and Relief Magazine: A Quarterly Christian Expression. Frykholm is a connoisseur of the hole-in-the-wall restaurant and the eclectic market wherever she goes. She lives in Leadville, CO with her husband, son, dog, cat and goldfish trying to grow wildflowers and tiny carrots in her back yard. In 2011 and 2012, she is spending the year with her family in Chicago with plans to visit every ethnic food enclave in this vast city.
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