For any of you who may be interested I posted a recent series dealing with theology, gender differences and ministry. My intention was to explore what it could mean to talk meaningfully about ministry to men in particular but the posts deal more broadly with the issues of gender and theology. Here are the links.
Preface to Theology and Gendered Ministry
Framing Gender Differences
Understanding the Gendered Jesus – Part 1; Graham Ward’s Cities of God
Understanding the Gendered Jesus – Part 2; Graham Ward’s Christ and Culture
Theology and Gendered Ministry: A Critique of (Some) Contemporary Men’s Ministries
Pastoral Care to Men
April 22, 2008Gender
Comments (2)
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Interesting. You’ve given me some stuff to process.
It seems to me that part of the point of sexuality and family in general is the drive to pursue and to be united with the Other. We are not drawn to those like us, but those who have qualities that are unlike us, which fulfill us, in a way. Yet the paradox of this is that the very thing that draws us is that which, at times, repels us. Yet our drive to be unified with that which repels us, ideally, draws us out of ourselves and causes us to be more than who we are by ourselves.
Thus, our drives lead us to suffering, and acceptance of that suffering is the context of love. The drive itself is not love, but the accepting of that which is in opposition to ourselves is.
Thus, the very thing that creates society is meant to create love. People sidestep love by attempting to force the object of their desire to be like them, or by separating from the object of their desire. But the ideal is unification which can only be created by the setting aside of ourselves.
If that is the case (and I am willing to be wrong in this) then isn’t the focus of “men’s ministry’s” simply a desire to deny the unification with the other?
Steve K
There are the spaces and differences of ‘gender’ within us, among ‘same sex’, and in relationship to ‘opposite sex’ so in this way men’s ministry has relevance to the extant that it explores those various spaces and desires without unnecessarily foreclosing the difference.