Abstract

Chapters One and Two are a presentation of the broad discourse of the problem of masculinity evident in current theoretical, political, social, and religious trends in the West. The theological or religious import of these chapters resides in an effort to set the stage for articulating new and potentially liberating ways of being and behaving as men. ;Chapter Three appropriates feminist theoretical writings to make the argument that for profeminist men's studies scholars the problem of masculinity has two primary components: the problem of "man" , and the historical pairing of masculine identity with a separative anthropology termed the "separative self" . ;Chapter Four uses R. W. Connell's notion of "hegemonic masculinity" to provide further theoretical illumination of both the problem of "man" and the "separative self." Subsequently, a selective but substantial review of men's studies literature of the past twenty five years is presented. This review defines and examines major themes in an attempt to create of a loose but coherent picture of hegemonic masculinity made manifest in both past and present ways of being and behaving as men in the West. ;Chapter Five engages profeminist men's studies literature in religion in two manners. First, the evidence for ways in which Western religions have contributed to the problem of masculinity are raised and examined. Second, potential resources within these same religious traditions for overcoming the legacies of masculine separation from intimacy, body, and sexuality are examined. ;Chapter Six presents a framework and specific constructive suggestions for ways of moving toward a postpatriarchal understanding of embodied masculinity. The framework is made up of an unreconstructed feminist erotics of connection and an appropriation of a theory of gender from the work of Luce Irigaray. The concluding section proposes a ethics of connection specific to men and men's bodies as a continuation of the men's studies in religion section in Chapter Five. This androcentric ethics is also proposed as a potentially liberating answer to the problem of masculinity