The Fire Within: Desire, Sexuality, Longing, And God by Ronald Rolheiser

For most religious people, the words God and sex never go together.  God is conceived of as holy, pure, sexless, and as morally above the raw desires that so powerfully beset us. Sex, on the other hand, is conceived of as earthy and unholy, something we must snatch, and not without guilt, from the gods. Christianity has struggled mightily with sex; so too have most other religions. And yet when we look at sexual desire and ask where it comes from, there can be only one answer. It comes from God.

This is a book on desire, its experience, its origins, its meaning, and how it might be generatively channeled. Sexuality is inside us to help lure us back to God, but dealing with this fire inside us is a lifelong struggle. Ron Rolheiser sheds light on this mystery and the journey it takes us on in these tantalizing fragments that help give us permission to feel what we feel and know that God is still smiling on us.   Paperback 112 pgs

Ronald Rolheiser, OMI, is a specialist in the fields of spirituality and systematic theology, and a New York Times bestselling author. He writes a regular column that is featured in more than seventy newspapers worldwide. He is the author of many books, including bestsellers The Holy Longing and Sacred Fire, as well as The Restless Heart, Forgotten Amongst the Lilies, Bruised and Wounded, and Domestic Monastery.