Religion and Spirituality

In the United States, spiritual and religious expression has historically been highly diverse, and devotion has taken a multiplicity of forms contingent upon individual and group identity, social and cultural milieu, geographic location, and other variables. American men's attempts to locate themselves in relation to the divine have historically constituted a complex set of beliefs and practices determined by these and other factors. Some ideological strains and influential constructs have at times contributed to an overarching, frequently hegemonic notion of masculine spirituality, but the spiritual identities of American men have both conditioned, and been conditioned by, the ever increasing pluralism of American religiosity. Racial and ethnic identities have also been interwoven with religious affiliations, enhancing the broad range of masculine spiritual and religious manifestations in ...