Men, Spirituality, and Gender-specific Biblical Hermeneutics
By (author) A.M. Kummer
With the rise of feminism, issues of gender have become more important in many walks of life, but the specific problems and challenges faced by men have not attracted much scholarly interest in theology. This book looks at the challenges for men as described in popular and academic publications. Masculinity is understood as the open, performative, and transformative self-project of the individual person. As many contemporary men suffer from pathologiesloneliness, emotional repression, addiction, depression, alienation from self and othersthat are often rooted in misguided masculinity codes that emphasize self-sufficiency, aggressiveness, and competition, they need to free themselves from such self-expectations and turn towards a spirituality of healing and flourishing.
With the rise of feminism, issues of gender have become more important in many walks of life, but the specific problems and challenges faced by men have not attracted much scholarly interest in theology. This book looks at the challenges for men as described in popular and academic publications. Masculinity is understood as the open, performative, and transformative self-project of the individual person. As many contemporary men suffer from pathologies – loneliness, emotional repression, addiction, depression, alienation from self and others – that are often rooted in misguided masculinity codes that emphasize self-sufficiency, aggressiveness, and competition, they need to free themselves from such self-expectations and turn towards a spirituality of healing and flourishing. The reading of biblical texts can help them. Critical reading and group discussion of biblical stories allow men to examine and address fundamental questions about their own identity. To help men benefit from scriptural narratives, the author proposes a new method of biblical interpretation: Readers of biblical texts should pay careful attention to ideology, to the interests that have shaped the text, and to how the text can influence the reader today. Secondly, readers should scrutinize the text for its vision of the future and for messages of hope. Finally, readers should look in the text for instances of, and invitations to, personal change and transformation. The author critically reviews a small selection of men-specific readings of biblical texts by biblical scholars and demonstrates how biblical exegesis yield new insights by taking on board the key elements of a gender-specific biblical hermeneutics for men. This book adds to the tools of modern Biblical exegesis the lens of gender-specific reading strategies for working-age men. Situated in the borderlands of biblical and practical theology, it provides fresh impetus both to exegesis and to the pastoral care of men.
- By (author) A.M. Kummer
Other Titles in this Series
One Bread, One Body, One Church
Essays on the Ecclesia of Christ Today in Honor of Bernard P. Prusak
Volume 81
Patristic Sources and Catholic Social Teaching
a Forgotten Dimension: A Textual, Historical, and Rhetorical Analysis of Patristic Source Citations in the Church's Social Documents
Volume 59
Interspaces between Word, Gaze and Touch
The Bible and the Visual Medium in the Middle Ages. Collected Essays on Noli me tangere, the Woman with the Haemorrhage, the Head of John the Baptist
Volume 62
Ongoing Renewal in the Church
Reflections from Patristic Tradition, Vatican II, and Pastoral Practice
Volume 82
Zwarte indianen en hun symbolen
Het magisch-religieuze systeem van de Garifuna van de Baai van Tela, Honduras
Volume 45
Normativity of the Future
Reading Biblical and Other Authorative Texts in an Eschatological Perspective
Volume 61
Embraced by the Father and the Son in the Unity of the Holy Spirit
A Study of the Trinity and the Mystical Life in the Works of Jan van Ruusbroec
Volume 65
Verdwaald tussen liefde, macht en schuld
Een hermeneutisch model voor pastorale begeleiding van dader en slachtoffer bij seksueel misbruik van kinderen
Volume 49
Mystical Anthropology: Cross-Religious Perspectives
Interdisciplinary Reflections on the Arnhem Mystical Sermons and Sri Aurobindo
Volume 66
Heurs et malheurs de la “collégialité”
Pontificats et Synodes face à la réception de Vatican II
Volume 69
More than a Memory
The Discourse of Martyrdom and the Construction of Christian Identityin the History of Christianity
Volume 51
Das Konzil und die Seminare
Die Ausbildung der Priester in der Dynamik des Zweiten Vatikanums
Volume 48
Theologie als geloofsvertolking
Historische en theologische reflecties over het proefschrift van Piet Schoonenberg
Volume 73
The Gospel Preached by the Deaf
Proceedings of a Conference on Deaf Liberation Theology held at the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), May 19, 2003
Volume 52
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