[Verginius Rufus]

I haven't seen that book by Boswell. He was a gay activist who died of AIDS...I've been given to believe that he engages in special pleading for his cause, so don't accept his interpretations uncritically.

St. Augustine, before his conversion, lived with a mistress who bore him a son. In his Confessions he has a comment to the effect that children may be unwanted but when they arrive they force you to love them.

[heartwood]

I haven't read other works by Boswell, just reviews of the homosexual-themed works, and didn't make the connection.

The Kindness of Strangers seems to be a straight-forward scholarly work, with nothing about homosexuality that I can remember, and no particular animus against Christianity.