Reviewing New Testament Masculinities

Abstract

Anyone who hasn’t already realised that masculinity is the nouvelle cuisine of biblical studies had better add this book to their diet and expect to be in for some tasty treats. This collection of essays from professors and doctoral students – all based in the USA with the exception of David Clines – is a carefully constructed work designed to place masculinity under the gaze of the discriminating diner and expose it as having almost nothing to do with biblical studies and yet nearly everything. Stephen Moore explains in his introduction: ‘Masculinity was, at once, everywhere and nowhere in the discipline, so ubiquitous as to be ordinarily invisible, and possessed, too, of the omnipotence that omnipresence confers’ (p. 1). Dragged (in style) under the spotlight, masculinity is ‘outed’ in such a way that it can no longer exercise its power from the shadows – it has finally become (to use Moore’s words again, and to thoroughly mix my metaphors) an important fish to fry. Conveying both the self-consciousness and self-confidence that is to be expected from any new area of research, this compilation offers the reader much. A quick scan over the menu reveals an introductory essay accompanied by a bibliography of works in the field of masculinity studies, followed by ten essays exploring the mesh between masculinity and biblical studies (with an emphasis on the gospels), and concluding with three responses, two of which are from professors of Classics. Very little has been overlooked in the preparation of this volume; it is in constant critique of itself and a reviewer might be tempted to tell the reader to peruse the introductory essay and the response essays and be done with it. However, for the sake of those readers who do not hold a copy in their hot little hands, the following comments should suffice. The introductory essay by Stephen Moore outlines the interrelationship between masculinity, masculinism, and feminism, before delving more deeply into the crucial issue of methodology. BOOK REVIEWS