JOSEPH GELFER

All things going to plan, I’ll be giving the following talk at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) conference, May 19-21 2011, Sacramento, California:

2012: The Use of Indigenous Voices from Australia and New Zealand

December 21 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. With its adoption of indigenous meso- and North-American motifs, initial research on 2012 as a cultural phenomenon (Sitler, 2006) argues that it can be seen as a “new age appropriation of an ancient Mayan calendar”. However, 2012 is a global phenomenon. This paper argues that when the 2012 phenomenon manifests in Australia and New Zealand a similar process of indigenous cultural appropriation occurs, leading toward the mobilization of a singular pan-indigenous identity which renders silent the individual indigenous identities the phenomenon seeks to honor.

I usually talk about 2012 in a cultural or religious studies environment, so it will be a new challenge to see how this is received from an indigenous studies perspective.

I have a new article out called LOHAS and the Indigo Dollar: Growing the Spiritual Economy in the new issue of New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry.

The article abstract is as follows:

It is well documented that alternative spiritualities can be commercialised and commodified. My aim in this paper is to extend this further by identifying how LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability), which describes a multi-billion dollar marketplace in the United States, seeks to consciously grow the spiritual economy to unprecedented levels. I then provide an example of how this consumer-focused logic is expressed by integral theorist Ken Wilber, resulting in what might be called the “indigo dollar.”

The journal is open access, so you can read the final published version right here.

I have a short chapter in the new book Papa, PhD: Essays on Fatherhood by Men in the Academy edited by Mary Ruth Marotte, Paige Martin Reynolds and Ralph James Savarese (Rutgers University Press).

My chapter is called A River Runs through It: Queer Theory and Fatherhood. My publishing agreement only allows me to post 20% of the text, but here’s the abstract:

Queer theory is not just about the experiences of gay and lesbian people, but about troubling categories. We can queer almost anything, including fatherhood. This essay casts an autoethnographic glance at my attempts to combine queer theory, masculine identity and fatherhood. I show how my masculine identity, which has historically accommodated a wide array of performances which resist normative masculinity, is challenged for the first time by the idea of suckling my son. I frame this anxiety by a broader consideration of the effects that being a masculinities researcher have on fatherhood (the application of theory, comparisons to the body of literature) and how this process can prove problematic for the practice of fatherhood. I then go on to draw comparisons between the task of fatherhood and the production of academic research: the hours invested, the letting loose into the world, the identity and momentum gathered outside my direct control. I conclude by likening academic work to a bridge across a river: one side of the bank representing the default way of doing fatherhood, the other side promising brighter, more informed possibilities. The bridge enables us to reach the far side of the river, but ultimately we have to leave it behind to continue the paternal journey.

That sounds very serious, but the whole thing is played for laughs.

A new issue of Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality is now available online on an open access basis. Volume 4, Number 2 (2010) contains:

Editorial:

Stephen C. Finley, Editorial: African Americans and Mormonism as a Case for the Consideration of Race, Class, Sexuality, and Gender in the Study of Religion (pp. 51-53)

Articles:

Roie Thomas, Inspire, Expire: Masculinity, Mortality and Meaning in Tim Winton’s Breath (pp. 54-65)

Robert J. Myles, Dandy Discipleship: A Queering of Mark’s Male Disciples (pp. 66-81)

Paul M. Collins, Constructing Masculinity: De Utero Patris (from the Womb of the Father) (pp. 82-96)

Book Reviews:

Nathan Hitchcock, Review of Eric Magnuson, Changing Men, Transforming Culture: Inside the Men’s Movement (pp. 97-99)

Katharina von Kellenbach, Review of Kenneth J. Doka, Terry L. Martin, Grieving Beyond Gender: Understanding the Ways Men and Women Mourn (pp. 100-102)

Björn Krondorfer, Review of Sven Glawion, Elahe Haschemi Yekani, and Jana Husmann-Kastein (eds.), Erlöser: Figurationen männlicher Hegemonie and Susanne Lanwerd, and Márcia Elisa Moser (eds.), Frau–Gender–Queer: Gendertheoretische Ansätze in der Religionswissenschaft (pp. 103-107)

Claire Clark, Review of Trysh Travis, The Language of the Heart: A Cultural History of the Recovery Movement from Alcoholics Anonymous to Oprah Winfrey (pp. 108-110)

Philip Culbertson, Review of William Ming Liu, Derek Kenji Iwamoto, and Mark H. Chae (eds.), Culturally Responsive Counseling with Asian American Men (pp. 111-113)

The next issue of Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality won’t go online until June; however, here’s a sneak preview of the first two papers:

Dandy Discipleship: A Queering of Mark’s Male Disciples

Robert J. Myles (University of Auckland)

While conventional readings of the Bible unambiguously presume the normativity of heterosexuality and binary categories of gender, this paper challenges such modern assumptions by purposefully and strategically re-reading three Markan discipleship texts “sexually.”  By combining a socio-rhetorical approach with queer and gender criticism as informed primarily by the work of Marcella Althaus-Reid, the re-readings attempt to penetrate through existing homophobic and erotophobic interpretations. Particular attention is also given to the ways in which the gender and sexuality of the male disciples has been constructed and can be problematized in both the world behind the text and the world in front of the text.

Inspire, Expire: Masculinity, Mortality and Meaning in Tim Winton’s Breath

Roie Thomas (Australian Catholic University)

Tim Winton’s latest novel and winner of the Miles Franklin award Breath (2009) is investigated here within a framework of theistic existentialism alongside a critique of masculinities in the Australian context. This novel presents a particular take on hegemonic masculinity and this dovetails neatly, I argue, with a continuum of spiritual consciousness and responsiveness drawn up by Danish creative writer and theological maverick, Søren Kierkegaard.

A reasonable review of Numen, Old Men in the British Association for the Study of Religions Bulletin (No. 115, 2009, p. 20):

This book is an insightful and useful work particularly suited to our emerging postdualist times. In it Gelfer explores the spectrum of ideas related to male spirituality and concludes that most previous views and theories have, even if attempting to break free of what he called our ‘heteronormative’ attitudes, been stuck in patriarchy. His arguments for this are extensive and convincing, even suggesting (as per David Tacey) that Jungian archetypes have more to do with social conditioning into patriarchy than any underlying divine trait.

Chapters and themes includes ‘The Mythopoetic Movement’, ‘The Evangelical Men’s Movement’, ‘The Catholic Men’s Movement’, ‘Integral or Muscular Spirituality’ and ‘Gay Spirituality’. From analysis of all these views of ‘spirituality for men’ (my phrase), only ‘queer theology’, he argues, offers any hope of breaking free of patriarchal influences: because it encourages its proponents to question what is normal.

Whilst extensively referenced (as one would expect, this book being based on Gelfer’s PhD thesis), a few more ‘real-life’ examples of the theories and ideas discussed might have been useful: We can probably guess what is meant by ‘heteronormative’, but what is normal for each of us, particularly in areas concerned with spirituality or with sexuality, depends greatly on our personal upbringing. Likewise his widely used word ‘mythopoetic’. But such a criticism merely highlights the key point of this book: much of what has been written on male/masculine spirituality is based on tired theory: it bears little relation to what men think and feel, and even less in relation to what they need to think and feel in order to feel whole, spiritual and ‘real men’.

On page 156 we read: “sexual difference charts the difference not between man and woman … but person and person” (his italics). Far more, I would suggest, could have been made of this key point: is not being a spiritual being about allowing the divine to live in and through us as unique beings? Isn’t spirituality about being true to the ‘here and now’ rather than any defined idea of sexuality? The author unfortunately fails to consider these questions. Likewise, both sexuality and spirituality, when ‘unpacked’, would seem to relate to a significant degree to love: to human and divine love respectively. Thus one would expect a discourse on spirituality in the context of sexuality to discuss love at some length; looking (for example) at the interrelationship and interplay between love of God and love of our ‘significant other’. Other than a brief mention of ‘agape’, however, this topic receives little attention.

Dr Gelfer’s key point is clear: despite many attempts to redefine ‘man’ in a spiritual sense, a predominant patriarchy continues to aggravate the expression and understanding of male spirituality. Minor criticisms aside, this book is eminently readable, well-structured and will provide food for thought to theologians, social scientists, therapist and counselors alike. Such interested parties may also be interested in the on-line journal that Gelfer has established and edits: Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality (www.jmmsweb.org).

Keith Beasley

Bangor University

A new issue of Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality is now available online.  Volume 4, Number 1 Table of Contents:

Editorial:

Joseph Gelfer, Both Remedy and Poison: Religious Men and the Future of Peace (pp. 1-5)

Articles:

Stephen Boyd, On Being Here with Others: Space, Identity and Justice (pp. 6-18)

Roland Boer, Of Fine Wine, Incense and Spices: The Unstable Masculine Hegemony of the Books of Chronicles (pp. 19-31)

Book Reviews:

Joseph Gelfer, Review of James Houghton, Larry Bean & Tom Matlack, The Good Men Project: Real Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Manhood (pp. 32-33)

Robert J. Myles, Review of Heather Ellis and Jessica Meyer (eds.), Masculinity and the Other: Historical Perspectives (pp. 34-36)

Björn Krondorfer, Review of John Powers, A Bull of a Man: Images of Masculinity, Sex, and the Body in Indian Buddhism (pp. 37-40)

Joseph Gelfer, Review of Björn Krondorfer (ed.), Men and Masculinities in Christianity and Judaism: A Critical Reader (pp. 41-42)

Philip Culbertson, Review of Chen Z. Oren and Dora Chase Oren (eds.), Counseling Fathers (pp. 43-46)

Márcia Elisa Moser, Review of Heike Walz, David Plüss (eds.), Theologie und Geschlecht. Dialoge querbeet (pp. 47-50)

A classic take on the peer review process, with a swipe at Open Access at the end:

Today sees the start of the 2009 Australian Association for the Study of Religions conference at The University of Melbourne, during which I’ll be presenting the following paper:

Evangelical and Catholic Masculinities in Two Fatherhood Ministries

In men’s ministries it is possible to distinguish between evangelical and Catholic masculinities: the former being more traditional, the latter somewhat “softer.” This paper pursues these differing masculine performances within a discourse of fatherhood in two fatherhood ministries: Dad the Family Shepherd and Fathers for Good. On the whole, the fatherhood ministries repeat the evangelical and Catholic masculinities of regular men’s ministries via the treatment of male headship, the politics of gender and sexuality, and the use of sport as a signifier for masculinity.

This morning I’m off to the Religious Communication Conference at Monash University, where tomorrow I’ll present the following paper:

Homespun and Studio-made: Aesthetic Differences in the Websites of Catholic and Evangelical Men’s Ministries

Across the Western world church attendees are approximately two-thirds women. There are significant debates as to why this is, ranging from women being innately more religiously inclined, through to churches having become feminised. This is problematic for those who believe men should have an equal (or even superior) place within the life of the Church. The response to this concern is the creation of men’s ministries, which aim to provide a masculine space within the Church for existing members and to bring new men in to the Church. Previous research (Gelfer, 2009) has shown that the types of masculine performances encouraged within men’s ministries tend to diverge along denominational/orientational lines: evangelical ministries tend towards a more “traditional” masculinity and Catholic ministries a “softer” masculinity. This paper argues that this distinction is also apparent in the aesthetics of men’s ministries websites: that evangelical websites tend towards a highly-produced and professional product whereas Catholic websites tend to appear more homespun. This aesthetic distinction echoes broader historical differences such as leanings towards a prosperity gospel or the epistemological privilege of the poor, as well as adding further insight into the differing masculine performances.