Rosaria Butterfield

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

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

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[]

Growing up, Butterfield attended predominantly liberal Catholic schools.^[2] She is most widely known today for her autobiography The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor's Journey into the Christian Faith, in which she details her transformation from a postmodernist to a Christian. For nearly a decade, she lived as an openly lesbian activist. While researching the Religious Right and their politics of hatred against the queer community,^[3] she wrote an article criticizing the evangelical organization Promise Keepers. Ken Smith, the then-pastor of the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church, wrote to her regarding this article^[4] and invited her to dinner.^[5] Her subsequent friendship with the Smiths led to her re-evaluation of her presuppositions.^[6] Two years later, Butterfield came to faith. Following her conversion, she developed a ministry to college students and frequently speaks at 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, a pastor, 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 same-sex-attracted Christians should identify as gay Christians. She believes that "[t]he job of the adjective is to change the noun."^[7] 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.^[8] She has written several best-selling books against what she perceives as prosperity gospel.^{[citation needed]}

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[]