Numen, Old Men: Contemporary Masculine Spiritualities and the Problem of Patriarchy (Gender, Theology and Spirituality)

By: Joseph Gelfer

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Synopsis: Since the early 1990s there have been various movements designed to encourage 'masculine spirituality'. All these movements share a concern that spirituality has become too feminine and that men's experiences of the spiritual are being marginalized. The task of masculine spirituality is to promote 'authentic' masculine characteristics within a spiritual context. Numen, Old Men examines these characteristics to argue that masculine spirituality is thinly veiled patriarchy. The mythopoetic, evangelical, and Catholic men's movements are shown to promote a hetero-patriarchal spirituality by appealing to either combative and oppressive neo-Jungian archetypes or biblical models of man as the leader of the family. Numen, Old Men examines spiritualities that aim to honour and transcend both the masculine and feminine, and offers gay spirituality as an example of masculine spirituality that resists patriarchy.