Rosaria Butterfield

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield (born 1962) is a writer, speaker, homemaker, and former tenured professor of English at Syracuse University.

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield
Born	1962
Occupation	Writer, Speaker
Education	PhD in English Literature
Alma mater	Ohio State
Genre	Christian
Notable works	The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey into the Christian Faith
Spouse	Kent Butterfield
Website
rosariabutterfield.com

Career

Butterfield, who earned her Ph.D. from Ohio State University in English Literature, served in the English Department and Women Studies Program at Syracuse University from 1992 to 2002. During her academic career, she published the book The Politics of Survivorship: Incest, Women's Literature, and Feminist Theory as well as many scholarly articles.[1] Her academic interest was focused on feminist theory, queer theory and 19th century British literature. She was awarded tenure in 1999, the same year that she converted to Christianity. She married in 2001.

Autobiography

Butterfield is more widely known today for the autobiography she published, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey into the Christian Faith, in which she tells about her transformation from a professor raised in Catholicism who for a period of eight years identified as a lesbian to, after falling in love with one of her research subjects for an uncompleted manuscript on psychoanalysis and the homosocial evangelical organization Promise Keepers [2], leaving her partner and becoming the wife of a Reformed Presbyterian Church pastor and homeschooling mother.[3] Following these conversions, Butterfield developed a ministry to college students and frequently speaks in churches and universities about her experience. She has taught and ministered at Geneva College. She now lives in Durham, North Carolina with her husband, Kent Butterfield, and their children.

Philosophy

In her books, she describes how she decided to be a lesbian from ages 28 to 36. She does not identify herself as "ex-gay" and does not think gay Christians should identify as gay Christians. She believes that "[t]he job of the adjective is to change the noun."[4] Butterfield has criticized conversion therapy for contending that the "primary goal of Christianity is to resolve homosexuality through heterosexuality, thus failing to see that repentance and victory over sin are God's gifts and failing to remember that sons and daughters of the King can be full members of Christ's body and still struggle with sexual temptation." Butterfield suggests this is a version of the prosperity gospel.[5] She has written several best-selling books against what she perceives as prosperity gospel.

Publications

• Crimes of Reading: Incest and Censorship in Mary Shelley's Early Novels (Thesis, 1992)
• The Politics of Survivorship: Incest, Women's Literature, and Feminist Theory (1996)
• The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey into the Christian Faith (2012)
• Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ (2015)
• The Gospel Comes with a House Key: Practicing Radically Ordinary Hospitality in Our Post-Christian World (2018)

References

1. Butterfield, Rosaria (2013-02-07). "My Train Wreck Conversion". Christianity Today. Retrieved 2014-08-11.
2. "https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1997/10/24/prof-decries-promise-keepers-pwhen-the/"
3. Gryboski, Michael (2013-06-13). "Former Lesbian Professor Says Leaving LGBT Community Had 'Horrible, Mangling Impact'". The Christian Post. Retrieved 2014-08-11.
4. Bailey, Sarah (2014-08-04). "They're Gay, They're Christian And They're Celibate!". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2014-08-11.
5. Butterfield, Rosaria. "You Are What—and How—You Read". Gospel Coalition. Retrieved 1 May 2015.