God’s Own Gender? Masculinities in World Religions

Throughout the history of religions, their holy texts and norms have been sources of images of men in societies around the world and have presented forms of masculinity that have found expression in religious acts and rituals. This volume examines how this reciprocal influence has shifted over time by bringing together research on different religious traditions from noted experts in the field, such as Björn Krondorfer, Yvonne Maria Werner and John Powers. It analyses similarities and differences in the interwoven relationships between specific religions and between concepts and practices of masculinity in different societies and cultures, such as Western forms of Christianity during the 19th and 20th centuries, European Judaism and Arabic Islam during the Middle Ages, and South Asian Buddhism and Hinduism. This book is the first to compare research on a variety of religions and forms of masculinity, and thereby contributes to the steadily growing field of interdisciplinary research on (critical) men's studies in religion.