Spirituality of Men: Sixteen Christians Write about their Faith, The

The Spirituality of Men: Sixteen Christians Write about their Faith. Edited by Philip L. Culbertson. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002. xiv + 282 pp. $25.00 (paper). Christianity in the United States is at a dangerous and foreboding crossroads. Promising and progressive conversations about the spirituality and sexuality of men have all but disappeared against the backdrop of distressing front-page news. Much-needed dialogue around the roles and identities of men for a new church has been disrupted by the eruption of sordid and injurious manifestations of sexuality and gender in the old church. With chilling redundancy and troubling regularity, male leadership in the nation's churches is being exposed for perpetuating a cruel sexual ethic that violates others, no less oneself. From Roman Catholic priests and Protestant clergy to nondenominational television ministers, a painful drama has unfolded with broad implications for the future of church and society. At the very least, the current maelstrom demands a deeper search for more wholesome ways to be male, especially where the leadership of the church is concerned. Philip Culbertson's anthology The Spirituality of Men illuminates the way with new vistas that invite men-and all who journey with them-to consider distinctive departures for embracing their full humanity.

The Spirituality of Men is a finely nuanced attempt to bring greater insight to the often confused discourse about the roles, attitudes, and identities of men in the Christian church. Though a growing body of literature now exists pertaining to various aspects of maleness, few books actually offer a prophetic examination of the forces that have shaped and constrained male lives, or provided a textured expression of the hope that lies within men for their ultimate amelioration. A number of the sixteen authors in this volume have done prior noteworthy work on men, religion, and masculinities (as is prominently noted in the preface, there are "many ways of being a man"), but have given considerably less attention to the implications of their work for parish life and Christian community. Collectively, then, the contributors to this volume who are gay and straight, clergy and lay, black and white, Protestant and Catholic, younger and older all explore the relationships between maleness and spiritual wholeness in ways that promise to be renewing for ecclesiastical life.

An issue of concern raised by Culberston is the frustrating recognition that the finished anthology was not as broadly representative as he had hoped. Indigenous, Hispanic, and Asian voices do not appear in this collection despite the editor's every good intention. Given the multiple and crushing demands made upon the relatively few scholars of color, it is little wonder that fewer still can lend their critique to yet another crisis, as important as this one is. Of course, the paucity of racial and ethnic scholars in academia is a commentary for another time and place. Yet there are other voices that also go unheard here-immigrant, parental, recovering, addicted, and incarcerated male voices that must necessarily await successor volumes. Nevertheless, the breadth of voices that are included point us in the right direction as we struggle toward a new and caring Christian community. One can easily imagine that a final colloquy, a "breaking of bread" between some of the authors, would have advanced the discussion all the more.

The Spirituality -of Men is a wonderfully critical and reflective effort aimed at advancing our notion of what the church can finally and at last become. The essays in this book deserve a wide readership by clergy, academics, and laity alike. Given the great deal of "manly" discomfort and silence surrounding issues of gender, sexuality, and sex in America, to say nothing of other identity formations, such discussions are requisite before men can even hope to begin to engage in that greater insurgent activity called beloved community.

ALTON B. POLLARD, III

Candler School of Theology, Emory University

Atlanta, Georgia

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