HOW men perform their “masculine-ness” has become a matter of close scrutiny in these gender-conscious days. This timely book “seeks to encourage men who are interested in talking about God and faith to bring their bodies into the conversation”. One of its main aims “is to make visible the diversity of masculinities, recognizing that men are often pressured to perform a certain type of masculinity, which works to deny the reality of who they are”. The authors, too, are refreshingly diverse, both in ethnic identity, sexual orientation, and religious affiliation.
There are 11 chapters, all about male bodies. One chapter, “Earthed bodies”, is about becoming men. Another, “Broken bodies”, is about resisting sin: and another, “Healing bodies”, is about salvation. The chapter “Resistant bodies” is about pastoral care, while “Receptive bodies” is about liturgy. There are two chapter on “Bodies of Christ”, one on the man Jesus, the other on the body of Christ as church.
Each chapter is organised into four or five sections, is introduced by the editors, and concludes with questions for discussion. Separate bibliographies at the end of each chapter are helpfully comprehensive. There are generally more than one author per chapter and sometimes conversations between them. This is a feature of the book which adds to its dialogical, colloquial, and inclusive feel.
The editors warn that “reading and discussing some of the themes explored in the book might be difficult and painful.” They are right. Dominant models of masculinity are examined in relation to control, power, and violence. The origins of toxic masculinity are “not outside of the Christian tradition but inscribed within it”. None the less, masculinity can be redeemed because “through the cross and resurrection, an all-powerful god is made vulnerable, divested of gender norms and power based on the traditional masculine/feminine, powerful/weak binaries”.
Mission must be tempered by its colonial and often violent past, while concern over the lack of men in church “turns out to be concern over a lack of certain types of men”. There is a big difference between men’s groups in churches offering support for developing life or parental skills, and those promoting a muscular Christianity in which competition, dominance, physical fitness, and food “(specifically the eating of red meat)” overlap with faith.
Men are urged, unsurprisingly, not to “collude” with “rape culture”. This is characterised “by aggressive, heteronormative models of masculinity that denigrate and objectify women, and present sexual encounters as adversarial”. The crucifixion of Jesus is understood as an act of male-on-male violence that “demands resistance to sin in all its forms”. Regarding men’s salvation, we need to be saved from toxic masculinities that “result in poor mental health, increased suicide rates, etc.”. Within church, there is a “disembodied form of masculinity” that denies “the reality of sexually active bodies”, while the hierarchical clerical structures of many Churches “feminize the laity, rendering them passive and voiceless”.
There is a warning, too, that more liberal theologies merely plunder the works of feminist and womanist theologians, searching for “ecclesial metaphors, while distorting them through the lens of patriarchy, and eclipsing the actual bodies of women in the Church”. Pastoral care is directed towards provision of “a supportive space for men to share emotions and explore generational and lived trauma”. God as Father is understood not as a “disciplinary distant figure”, but as “a caring playful God who seeks to listen to humanity, who does not demand obedience but longs to be invited into the life of the world”.
The book is a rewarding read, a polyphonic cry to men to examine themselves in the light of a just and active faith.
Dr Adrian Thatcher is Honorary Professor of Theology and Religion in the University of Exeter, and Editor of Modern Believing.
Behold the Men: An introduction to critical theologies of masculinities
Robert Beckford and Rachel Starr, editors
SCM Press £19.99
(978-0-334-06123-6)
Church Times Bookshop £15.99
