Introduction

Any attempt to justify this project of a Research Companion which brings together the two themes of religion and sexuality is perhaps unwarranted. In short, religion and sexuality are current topics of research interest that stride the scholarly landscape in earnest. One need only scan the copious amount of extant academic writings produced within numerous disciplines engaging with various aspects of religiosity, not to mention the vibrant range of current research on the subject. Similarly, albeit not on the same scale and hitherto a rather isolated specialism and neglected area, the subject of sexuality (often expressed through the plural of ‘sexualities’) is clearly an expanding field attracting considerably academic awareness via a burgeoning body of literature.