Valor and Vulnerability: Pastoral Explorations of Intimacy, Grief, and Resilience among Boys and Men

Intimacy, vulnerability, precarity, resiliency, and loss are ingredients of any life, though they take on particular shape and tone when we listen to the experiences of boys and men. The voices and stories of men and boys are invitations for pastoral ministers and theologians to understand and respond to their joys, struggles, and sorrows, as well as to recognize and affirm their courage and strengths. In this book, thirteen scholars in pastoral theology from diverse backgrounds and perspectives collaborate in engaging art, literature, the social sciences, and cultural artifacts to explore the intersection of masculinity and religious life in rich and varied forms. Their aim, in part, is not only to deepen and appreciate wide-ranging experiences of boys and men but also to attend and respond to systemic realities that contribute to or undermine their flourishing.

Robert C. Dykstra is Charlotte W. Newcombe Professor of Pastoral Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the author of Counseling Troubled Youth (1997), Discovering a Sermon (2001), and Images of Pastoral Care (2005), and he is coauthor with Allan Hugh Cole Jr. and Donald Capps of Losers, Loners, and Rebels (2007).

Ryan LaMothe is a professor of pastoral care and counseling at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology. He is the author of Care of Souls, Care of Polis: Toward a Pastoral Political Theology.