Male Spirituality - Implications for Spiritual Directors and Spiritual Direction…?

Paul writes – I have an upcoming workshop on “male spirituality” that I’m preparing to facilitate. Your help and insights would be appreciated. See questions at the bottom of this post.

Philip Culbertson helpfully (circa 1992) lists twelve stumbling blocks that inhibit the development of a healthy masculine spirituality within the Christian tradition. Despite many of the issues arising from the late 1980’ the list does in some measure begin to get at the “false masculine” and thus the obstacles and opportunities we face as males in becoming more fully human, alive, and free:

1.        The identification in the tradition of God as Father.

2.        The fear of the feminine.

3.        The domination by tradition-centered males of the development of almost all literature in theology and spiritual direction.

4.        The suppression by males of much of the broad range of human emotions.

5.        The valuing of self-sufficiency, making it hard to pray for help or to seek healing in the face of powerlessness.

6.        The misunderstanding of the value and process of reciprocal relationships, which inhibits our sense of self in God’s eyes and devalues our interdependence with creation and with the rest of humanity.

7.        The insistence that to do something is categorically manlier than to be something, or simply to be.

8.        The problem men have knowing who they are when they are not in charge.

9.        The heritage of body-soul dualism and the resultant dismissal of the body and human sexuality.

10.    The need to control structurelessness by putting everything in a hierarchical order; the fear of both chaos and spontaneity.

11.    The assumption that incompleteness [and mystery]… is a sign of failure.   

12.    The preference for linearity over circularity…

How accurate does this list feel, over a decade after its publication? What would you change, delete or add…?

Comments

[Gary Manders]

This starts the process rolling. Richard Rohr has written some good stuff you could draw on. I am always dubious about the apparent distinctions between male and female, like men are from mars,women are from venus. Maybe that's my own fear of the feminine. Is masculinity about doing and femininity about being? I would get the group to interact and come up with their own and use yours as a starter.

I would stress the self sufficiency,dangers of isolation with the whole issues of vulnerbaility, intimacy and how we develop this for men.

[Mike]

I hate to broaden your scope... but I can't help it.

I don't think we can deal with the issue of male spirituality--male anything for that matter--until we tackle the issue of the masculine view of the feminine. I could start rambling on the subject, but I'll leave it there. (except to agree with Gary on Richard Rohr... his work "Simplicity" in particular.)

[Paul Fromont]

Good stuff Gary and Mike. Very affirming comments.

[Ragged Glory]

I actually think male dominance is a good thing. You often hear women say the world would be a better thing if women ran it - bollix! It would be even worse, fascism and oppression of free thought comes naturally to a woman, men have to work at it!!

[Paul]

Sometimes i like to remimd myself that Jesus has a working penis - that gives me hope that there is a way to give others humanity and not strip their humanity away for our own consumption.

I think as well that there is of course the issue of how to balance out a male view of spirituality with the feminine so it does not sound like males should be hogging the spotlight again - that often i think forces men to be extra apologetic for wondering about their wiring rather than being a helpful constructive insight into themselves