The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Butterfield

Level of difficulty: Easy read but challenging content

Rosaria Butterfield’s book, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith, is essential reading for anyone interested in LGBTQ issues from a Christian perspective. Butterfield was formerly a tenured professor of English and Queer Theory at Syracuse University, and she was living in a lesbian relationship. While conducting research on Promise Keepers and the Religious Right, she began an unlikely relationship with a pastor and his wife, which began her journey of faith, ultimately leading to her conversion. I recommend this book if you have a family member or friend struggling with gender identity or sexuality, as it is an honest portrait of Butterfield’s struggles, inner thoughts, and costliness of her faith journey (she describes it as a “train wreck”), yet at the same time, the book reverberates with hope, reminding us that Jesus changes lives. This is not a “quick fix” book with simplistic answers. It’s real, authentic, and deeply moving. The hospitality that Butterfield was shown not only transformed her own life, but it is central to her understanding of the gospel and how the Christian faith is to be lived out in local neighborhoods (see her book, The Gospel Comes with a House Key). Rosaria is now married to Kent Butterfield, who serves as a pastor of First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham. If you google Rosaria Butterfield, you’ll find lectures, videos, and podcasts. You’ll find them informative and well worth your time.  

The Gospel Coalition has a helpful book review.