Joseph Gelfer

The ongoing movement toward globalization challenges us to reconsider issues of individual identity. Are we evolving into citizens of the world? How crucial is nationality? And for men, what does it now mean to be male?

Diverse answers to this provocative question are analyzed in Masculinities in a Global Era in its theoretical models, study findings, and compelling examples.

Multiple dynamics are displayed in these chapters--gender and sexuality, tradition and change, local and… Show more

The ongoing movement toward globalization challenges us to reconsider issues of individual identity. Are we evolving into citizens of the world? How crucial is nationality? And for men, what does it now mean to be male?

Diverse answers to this provocative question are analyzed in Masculinities in a Global Era in its theoretical models, study findings, and compelling examples.

Multiple dynamics are displayed in these chapters--gender and sexuality, tradition and change, local and global, East and West--as male identity is defined as a work in progress in locations as disparate as Ireland and Indonesia. Contributors analyze the larger paradoxes and ambiguities of studying masculinity and globalization, and of the gender contexts of globalization as a social phenomenon. As a volume, the perspective is multinational, multiracial, sexually inclusive, and optimistic about globalization as a positive transformative force. Show less

21 December 2012 is believed to mark the end of the thirteenth B’ak’tun cycle in the Long Count of the Mayan calendar. A growing number of people believe this date to mark the end of the world or, at the very least, the end of the world as we know it: a shift to a new form of global consciousness. This book brings together for the first time a range of scholarly analyses on the 2012 phenomena. Examining how much of the 2012 phenomenon is based on the historical record and how much is… Show more

21 December 2012 is believed to mark the end of the thirteenth B’ak’tun cycle in the Long Count of the Mayan calendar. A growing number of people believe this date to mark the end of the world or, at the very least, the end of the world as we know it: a shift to a new form of global consciousness. This book brings together for the first time a range of scholarly analyses on the 2012 phenomena. Examining how much of the 2012 phenomenon is based on the historical record and how much is contemporary fiction, the book reveals the landscape of the modern apocalyptic imagination, the economics of the spiritual marketplace, the commodification of countercultural values, and the cult of celebrity. Show less

Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality (JMMS) is the only journal dedicated to the exploration of masculinity and religion/spirituality in its many forms. The Best of Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality brings together the finest papers published to date in JMMS, providing insight into its diversity both in terms of discipline and geographical reach.

Since the early 1990s there have been various waves of interest in what is often described as “masculine spirituality”. While diverse, a commonality among these interests has been a concern that spirituality has become too feminine, and that men’s experiences of the spiritual are being marginalized. Masculine spirituality is therefore about promoting what it perceives to be authentic masculine characteristics within a spiritual context.

By examining the nature of these characteristics… Show more

Since the early 1990s there have been various waves of interest in what is often described as “masculine spirituality”. While diverse, a commonality among these interests has been a concern that spirituality has become too feminine, and that men’s experiences of the spiritual are being marginalized. Masculine spirituality is therefore about promoting what it perceives to be authentic masculine characteristics within a spiritual context.

By examining the nature of these characteristics, Numen, Old Men argues that masculine spirituality is little more than a thinly veiled patriarchal spirituality. The mythopoetic, evangelical, and to a lesser extent Catholic men’s movements all promote a heteropatriarchal spirituality by appealing to neo-Jungian archetypes of a combative and oppressive nature, or understanding men’s role as biblically ordained leader of the family.

Numen, Old Men then examines Ken Wilber’s integral spirituality which aims to honour and transcend both the masculine and feminine, but which privileges the former to the extent where it becomes another masculine spirituality, with all its inherent patriarchal problems. Gay spirituality is then offered as a form of masculine spirituality which to a large degree resists patriarchal tendencies, suggesting a queering of spirituality could be useful for all men, both gay and straight. Show less