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Muscular Christianity: Manhood and Sports in Protestant America, 1880-1920
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Shattuck, Gardiner H. |
| Copyright Year | 2003 |
| Abstract | By Clifford Putney. Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 2001. x + 300 pp. $39.95 (cloth); L26.50 (cloth). As Clifford Putney demonstrates in this highly engrossing study, church leaders were once deeply concerned about a culture of femininity that was allegedly sapping the vitality of American Protestantism. Alarmed by statistics indicating that the membership of Protestant denominations was becoming increasingly female, religiously committed men fretted about how to attract other men to their parishes. Some powerful lay figures (for example, Theodore Roosevelt and John D. Rockefeller, Jr.) placed the blame on the clergy-"thin, vapid, affected, driveling little doodles" (p. 79) who were happier sipping tea with women than bumping shoulders with men at sporting events. What congregations needed, they said, were far fewer "'ritualists,''parasites,' and "weaklings'" (p. 82) and more "men whose blood coursed strong and hot through their veins, fine specimens of muscular, soldierly Christianity" (p. 81). Building upon the insights of Ann Douglas in The Femlnization of American Culture (1977), Putney investigates the fears of male religious leaders about the debilitating influences supposedly exerted on them by women. He approaches this subject both chronologically and topically, examining the growth and development of "muscular" organizations such as the YMCA, the Boy Scouts, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, the Student Volunteer Movement, and the "St. Grottlesex" prep schools of New England. Putney also examines the response of women who objected to this campaign to masculinize American Protestantism. Although a few chose to join new religious movements created and led by women-Christian Science, Theosophy, and the Church of the Higher Life-many others affirmed "the Cult of the Strenuous Life" (p. 33) just as vigorously as their male colleagues. Denying that good health and rugged outdoor experiences ought to be reserved only for boys and young men, these women established the YWCA, the Girl Scouts, the Camp Fire Girls, and similar organizations in order to meet their need for physical activity imbued with high-minded principles. Although muscular Christianity reached its apogee in the American churches during World War I, revulsion at the bloody slaughter of modern warfare, the moral relativism of the "Jazz Age," and the emergence of neo-orthodox theology effectively ended the movements appeal within the mainline denominations after 1920. … |
| Starting Page | 214 |
| Ending Page | 214 |
| Page Count | 1 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.5860/choice.39-5151 |
| Volume Number | 85 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://www.veritesport.org/downloads/files/book_reviews/PDF/Muscular_Christianity.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.39-5151 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
