Touching God argues for the importance of love in the work of the Victorian poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889). In this book I look upon the Jesuit as a poet of romantic love, as one who wrote love poems to God. Celibacy did not hinder Hopkins' capacity in this regard. Taking his lead, I consider sexual intercourse as merely one among several expressions of passion, not as the ultimate act of intimacy. Indeed, at a time when the majority of English Protestants regarded religious celibacy with deep suspicion, celibacy afforded Hopkins the opportunity to speak of his love freely. Far from denying the corporeal, he articulated in his writings a love that is still familiar to readers today. Depictions of the body and its acts of tenderness – notably touching – played a central role in his writings on love. He appealed to many recognisably romantic and sexual tropes, such as touching hands, melting and merging subjects, beating hearts, magnetic attraction, mutual gazes, kisses, embraces, fecundity and homecoming. These and other images direct readers to a love that unifies and a touch that soothes as much as it electrifies. As Touching God demonstrates, awareness of the spiritual eroticism in Hopkins' work is vital to a fuller understanding of his poetry.

Scholars in recent years have looked at the cultural, literary, intellectual, scientific and religious milieus in which Hopkins lived. Touching God draws on, but also departs from, these well-known studies by insisting on the centrality of love in his poetry.