Rohr - Masculine Spirituality

Thanks to Bob Carlton for directing me to Richard Rohr’s Male Spirituality website. Rohr’s essay, Masculine Spirituality was particularly useful, and goes a long way, in my mind, to helping respond to some of the questions I raised in my previous post. Interested too in a Phil Johnson comment in relation to EC and women being marginalized. I think the EC observation is a valid one Phil. The place of and role of women has been an ongoing topic of much debate within EC circles. See Rachelle (here and here) and Richard Sudslaw for comment on EC and women (the comments on Richard's post are useful too). I think though that the contemporary absence of distinctly masculine approaches to prayer, spiritual direction, spiritual formation, and Christian spirituality more generally is a different issue. Phil, I’m not sure whether this absence is repeated in so-called New Age spirituality circles (you’d know better than I) but it seems to me that Rohr’s observations in the paper mentioned above are more than likely to be true of males more generally. Rohr’s article and appended interview (particularly) are well worth a read. Here are a few quotes:

Women have been encouraged and even forced to work on their inner life more than men in our culture…Their inner journeys have left many of us men in the dust.

He is trapped inside the false masculine…

A masculine spirituality would emphasize action over theory, service to the human community over religious discussions, speaking the truth over social graces, and doing justice over looking nice.  Without a complementary masculine, spirituality becomes overly feminine (which is really a false feminine!)  and characterized by too much inwardness, preoccupation with relationships, a morass of unclarified feeling, and endless self-protectiveness.

In my humble masculine opinion, I believe much of the modern, sophisticated church is swirling in this false feminine.

…men aren’t inclined toward the interior, they tend to move in that direction only when they are stretched or called or forced by circumstances.

I need to read some more Rohr so that I can get a better handle on his thinking.

Comments

[rick]

Rohr, is my all time favorite. "Everything Belongs" is a great place to start.

Thanks for the post.

[philjohnson]

Paul, thanks for continuin the conversation. I should preface things by saying that masculine spirituality is one of the issues that is hopelessly susceptible to generalisations made on the basis of niche samples. That is, one can look at the footy and recreation culture and draw conclusions about male spirituality (as if what's observed there applies universally); or what one observes in blue collar working class circles equates to all males; or what happens in neo-gnostic, neo-Buddhist, new spiritualities applies to all. I'm sure that sociological and demographic details lend themselves to some helpful generalisations if one looks at the different niches.

On the male spirituality issues looked at from the perspective of Christian counselling you might like to add to Rohr by checking out James Dittes "Driven By Hope: Mean and Meaning" (Westminster/John Knox 1996).

But to come to your query about new age and male spirituality. I'd like to comment by throwing out a lassoo with a wide noose and yank in the herd in one broad swoop (so beware of my generalisations in making these points!).

There is certainly a strong feminised spiritual ethos to be detected in different layers of new age, and in neo-pagan/wiccan spiritualities. The large numbers of women who participate in alternate festivals provides sufficient empirical proofs on that score; and one need only note the metaphors used about "Gaia" (the earth) as a goddess; in wiccan circles the feminine archetypes and goddess motifs and so on.
And just note the parade of women's voices writing: Marilyn Ferguson, Shirley Maclaine, Louise Hay, Shakti Gawain, Margot Adler, Starhawk, Zsusanna Budapest, Fiona Horne etc.

But it is not the case that this is just for the women. Several of the seminal forerunners and theorists who have influenced new age and neo-pagan thought have been men. In the new age traditions Emanuel Swedenborg, Goethe, Blake, Charles Leadbeater, Carl Jung, Deepak Chopra, Anthony Robbins, James Redfield, Wayne Dyer etc.

In neo-paganism, Gerald Gardner, Aleister Crowley, Gavin Bone, Ray Buckland etc.

If we look at efforts to develop a masculine spirituality, one can start to find traces of this in writers who pick up the psychoanalytic/therapeutic streams (especially working on Jungian lines), and popularising this material for a "neo-spiritual male". Here I think of John Bly's "Iron John" (Element 1992), picking up mythic archetypes and tales to develop a masculine ethos and spirituality (outside Christian thought). Similarly, Robert Johnson's "He"; and then to add Jungian balance(!) Robert Johnson's "Lying With The Heavenly Woman: Understanding and Integrating Feminine Archetypes in Men's Lives" (Harper 1994). At a fictional level you have Deepak Chopra's novel "Merlin", Redfield's "Celestine Prophecy" and Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" (and the Celestine Prophecy movie is in post-production stages now, and May 2006 is earmarked for the film version of Da Vinci Code).

Don't forget the pre-christian conversion blockbuster by M. Scott Peck in the 1980s "The Road Less Travelled", which was so influential in new age circles and beyond.

And in the realm of vocation/business, recall the impact of the Mormon author Steven Covey "Seven Habits of Highly Succesful People" (and sequels on the successful family etc).

In neo-pagan networks the turn toward shamanism has developed both female and male trajectories.
The bi-monthly periodical "Witchcraft" provoked a lot of reader feedback at the over-emphasis on women; the magazine has responded in kind by special focus articles on male spirituality in Witchcraft and now has a permanent "male column" in each edition.

The development of Asatru (deriving from the Norse traditions) in neo-pagan circles has alarmed some neo-pagans who are not into Asatru, because of detected elements on racial apartheid and traces of fascist thinking. Asatru has a strong male leadership in it (one might ponder if it is patriarchal).

At the very least neo-paganism posits a masculine and feminine polarity in the deity, which they see as a corrective to Christianity's "male God".

As my PC's hard-drive and some software are having intermittent near-death encounters, I must be "lazy" here and suggest that some "archaeological digging" can be done in the archives of my blogspot. You will find a post on "New Spirituality and Aussie Blokes" which draws attention to influence of neo-spiritualities among male celebrities in sport, such as various members of the Aussie test cricket team who now do yogic meditation; and some footy clubs who have called in mind powers experts to help the team/s focus on their inner power to visualise success.

Internet-based (i.e. "hyper-real") spirituality
is a phenomenon among younger folk, with the emergence of neo-spiritualities practiced on the web. So you have Jediism (based on Star Wars) and Matrixism (based on The Matrix movies), which have been noted by sociologist of religion Adam Possamai (Uni of Western Sydney). You'll find references to Adam's work on my blog.

In the countercultural Rave dance scene (i.e the underground not the hip club scene) there are plenty of males combining anarchic politics, anti-globalisation protests, altered states of consciousness, with concepts of being "techno-shamans". You'll find on my blog a note about the Rave scene, and if you follow the white rabbit you'll come across the writings of Aussie anthropologist Graham St. John (look for his on-line PhD dissertation "Alternative Cultural Heterotopias").

I would agree that for a lot of western males who are unemployed or in low-paid work, their hierarchy of needs is centred in survival mode, and so do not have the luxury of spending time in Jungian archetypal reflections, or neo-pagan spell casting. Working class blue collar males may have time for beer and footy, and not seem interested in what their wives or de facto partners are into. But at a broad cultural level, it is not beyond the bounds of possibilities for even these men to be impercptibly influenced by new age metaphysics encroaching in alternate healing modalities (which have upwards of 60% of adults using alongside conventional doctors); or be loosely aware of Da Vinci Code being an item on TV.

In the mid 1990s if you were at an airport waiting lounge you'd see men and women devouring Redfield's "Celestine Prophecy"; and you can say "ditto" with Brown's Da Vinci Code. To what extent all readers take these novels to heart is a moot point.

But hopefully the above offers enough raw material to think about.

Cheers
Philip

[Paul Fromont]

Thanks Phil. Useful stuff. I had noted your post "New Spirituality and Aussie Blokes." Male leadership (as you've illustrated) is very obvious; but at a more grass-roots entry level, I wonder if maleness is still as significant. If I used my office workplace with over 40-staff, a third of which are males, I could be certain that they wouldn't have a bar of Christianity, new spirituality etc. Contrast that with the women where the topics of spirituality, horoscopes, feng shui etc. At the Anglican church I visited this morning 65% of the congregation was female...all leaders (except one male priest), cross bearers were women...great to see, but the absence of males and under 40's was so very obvious...Rohr suggests the church is "swirling in false feminine..." Thanks again Phil for your lengthy comment and the resources contained within it.

[philjohnson]

Hi Paul
Just a light dust and polish on what I noted and your observations. What can be noted in the Australian scene is intriguing concerning both church and beyond.

First, the demographics on new age festivals (customer surveys by the organisers; and then my own mini-straw polls), that between 60-80% of punters at a new age festival are women; but note that around 61% are aged 20-40 yrs.

Second the Aussie-based NCLS research shows across the Protestant spectrum (leaving out Hillsong), that the biggest gap in church attendance age groups is 20-40 yrs (whether male or female). In other words, the trend is if you're 20-40 and in church that is because you have a hand-me-down faith or a late adolescent conversion. Very few people are noted as entering the mainstream Protestant churches as new converts to faith in their 30s and 40s.

Third, the Catholics in Sydney have noted that the RC is losing around 30,000 people per year; also noted that just toward the ends of the 1990s, the numbers of females attending mass in the 20-40 age group is less than what it is for men. Now the interpretation of the figures is NOT that more males are going to mass, just that as the women are deserting, the number of blokes left standing is obvious!

Fourth, the basic thing to note is that since the 1960s in Australia the numbers of people going to church has been in steady decline, so that less and less do we see children from non-Christian homes attending Sunday School, Kid's clubs etc. Of interest then, there are the late baby boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y all having had less and less contact with the church.

Fifth, church leadership is overwhelmingly male, with the windmill tilting among lay parishioners as females.

Sixth, the Hillsong phenomenon needs to be soberly assessed. In a rough way it can be said that about one-third of folk were already Pentecostal, another one-third have joined by membership transference, and the remainder comprise those who wander in and out of the revolving door -- as fast as one newcomer enters the front door, at least three are exiting out the back door. The "14,000" do not all go to the church at Castle Hill. This is a combined figure of Castle Hill church and the congregation at Waterloo.

Then we have the admirable project of the Sydney Anglican diocese, to raise attendance rates by 10%. The Sydney diocese has between 50,000 to 75,000 attendees regularly in church each week. And certainly campus based ministries do actively proselytise. However it is also worth noting how some of the growth is again by transference. My wife and I know a young anglican minister. He extolled to us how marvellous things are at his church. The numbers are so staggering they have 3 morning services. I then inquired, "and how many of these represent new converts to Christ?" The answer, "none".

Seventh, I'd suggest that a little reflection on hymnology can be helpful. Consider the lyrical content of church songs -- whether old hymns or contemporary material. How many images or metaphors are used that evoke images of Jesus as "your lover/boyfriend", and then wonder how awkward it must be for blokes who like a bit of rugged biffo feel about Jesus as a lover! And in some of our songs, how theologically sound are they to begin with? J S Bach was theologically informed as a believing Lutheran, and translated into baroque music the summation of Lutheran theology. Consider the Wesleys and their hymnology (interesting to note how some of their hymns have been trimmed down from 30 stanzas to about 5 or 6 in some cases; Hark the Herald Angels sing has stanzas about creation praising the birth of Christ -- interesting as we don't emphasise creation theology or ecological ethics!).

Eighth, a lot of guys who are employed in IT over here are digging into things like yoga, or the Da Vinci Code; and many IT people (male and female) are Public Servants or IT workers. La Veyan Satanism (which is essentially an internet religion that does NOT involve belief in the devil; it is a combination of Nietzschean ideas, anti-herd mentality, power of the will to involve magic as one tries to make the universe work for one's Will, etc), is dominated by young males who are atheists, tend to be highly computer literate, and many are ex-fundamentalists in their early 20s. (think of Marilyn Manson who was terrified to death by "Left Behind" eschatology at the fundamentalist school he went to).

The Goth and Vampire cultures attract males as well as females (Morticia-Addams lookalikes, eh?); here there is an emphasis on celebrating darkness, the body-piercing/tattoo culture, along with clubbing/dance and anti-global politics, mixed in with neo-magical ideas.

Also worth noting is that neo-Buddhist pathways are appealing to males, many of whom are middle management to executive levels. But also I found (In the early 1990s I spent 6 years making Wills for the public), that quite a few gay men I took Wills instructions for have opted for Buddhism (they wanted Buddhist funerals; beneficiaries included Buddhist monasteries, meditation centres etc).

Tibetan Buddhism (or western adaptations from it) also is having some appeal among men. There is the celebrity factor, like Richard Gere (who is middle age) and Adam Yauch (The beastie Boys) who is younger. While a very small number have become monks, what I have found is that the "mix and match" factor occurs with various guys under 40 yrs of age.

The tricky bit with do-it-yourself spirituality is that it can be missed on the usual radar screens, because:
a). The practitioners don't call it "religion" or have privatised it;
b). Christians are often undiscerning or poorly informed as to what are the "signs" someone is "into" DIY stuff.

Ninth, some ironies also abound. Michael Niman in his study of the rainbow tribes of the USA (feral, neo-pagans) found that at their annual tribal gatherings, a huge tribal council would be held. The council is dominated by men, run by men, with some token females on the council; Niman found the blokes would talk endlessly about female spirituality, being sensitive to women, etc, and all done with the females largely excluded from the deliberations! Niman's book is "People of the Rainbow" (Uni of Tennessee Press 1997).

I suggest that as the issue of masculine spirituality and the poor representation of males in attendance are looked at, that the trends outside the church need to be factored in.

As institutions in general are treated with suspicion, and the cult of the individual surges on with ("I'm an expert because I trust my gut instinct, or I can find stuff on the Net to show the truth has been suppressed"), males and females are looking elsewhere other than the church be it expressed in traditional or EC cultures.

Again my hobby-horse: the unpaid bills of the church.

[finker]

I have come to point in my own discipleship and the way in which I am choosing to lead where I am ceasing to describe any behaviour as overtly masculine or feminine, whether it related to spirituality and prayer or not. I was interested in the article by Rohr on his website and the final question he was asked (or is askling himself) about learning from Jesus. The fact that Rohr uses language of Jesus being masculine and feminine in perfect balance surely tells us that these labels are obsolete, if they were ever correct in the first place. I would point you to a book by Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen called Fathers & Sons where she undertakes a survey amongst seminary students asking them to classify a range of human behavioural characteristics as "masculine" or "feminine". Interwoven into about twenty characteristics were a number of the fruits of the spirit. All of the fruits were described by something like 80% of the people surveyed as feminine!

Our labels are wrong. I've stopped using them as much as I dare and I can.

Thoroughly enjoyed these posts Paul. Good to be reading you again. Love and Peace.

[*Christopher]

I agree with Rick, "Everything Belongs" is a great place to start, though he's also written an excellent book, Brothers something or other, looking at various men in the Bible.