Overview

"Dissatisfied with a Victorian culture focused on domesticity and threatened by physical decline in sedentary office jobs, American men in the late 19th century sought masculine company in fraternal lodges and engaged in exercise to invigorate their bodies. One form of this new manly culture, developed out of the Protestant churches, was known as muscular Christianity. In this study, Clifford Putney details how Protestant leaders promoted competitive sports and physical education to create an ideal of Christian manliness. Though rooted in the new culture of manhood, muscular Christianity was conceived to reinvigorate Protestantism itself, which in the minds of many was increasingly failing to create masculine, forceful natures capable of withstanding an influx of Catholic immigrants. Putney analyzes the role of such dynamic organizations as the Boy Scouts and the Young Men's Christian Association in making Protestant Christianity a religion that attracted boys and men to the vigorous life. He also portrays the muscular Christian movement's vivid personalities, including evangelist Dwight L. Moody, psychologist G. Stanley Hall (who warned of ""woman peril"" in the churches), and Theodore Roosevelt, the rough-riding, safari-going advocate of the Strenuous Life for the manly Christian."

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On his way to becoming a stone face on Rushmore, Theodore Roosevelt converted to a now largely forgotten form of liberal Protestantism emphasizing masculine exertion and healthy living. Putney here chronicles the rise and eventual decline of this new creed of muscular Christianity, which, for all its brawn and bravado, actually betrayed its founders' fears: that Christian men would degenerate into feminine weakness in a church dominated by women; that Anglo-Saxon Protestants would be overwhelmed by the influx of swarthy Catholics; that infidels would roll back the gains won by previous generations of valiant missionaries. When the horrors of world war induced a national pacifism, liberal Protestants finally sidled away from this cult of masculine piety. But Putney detects the strange reemergence of a recognizably similar masculine orthodoxy in a new setting: conservative Protestants have taken up the cause in initiatives such as Promise Keepers and Athletes in Action. A fascinating study shedding light on a hidden link between the liberal Protestants of the past and the fundamentalists of today. -- Bryce Christensen Booklist (10/15/2001)

[This] fascinating study offers a fresh angle on gender issues and our attitudes about sports today.--C. R. Dallas Morning News (12/29/2001) Far more women than men were going to church by the 1880s and 1890s, and ministers often exhibited a softness and delicacy of their own. Advocates of muscular Christianity, deploring this state of affairs, set themselves the task of bringing men back to church and showing that Jesus, the rugged, hard-bodied carpenter of Nazareth, was no sissy. Clifford Putney's superb Muscular Christianity shows that they tried to do it by linking Christianity to manly sports.--Patrick Allitt Times Literary Supplement (10/25/2002) On his way to becoming a stone face on Rushmore, Theodore Roosevelt converted to a now largely forgotten form of liberal Protestantism emphasizing masculine exertion and healthy living. Putney here chronicles the rise and eventual decline of this new creed of muscular Christianity, which, for all its brawn and bravado, actually betrayed its founders' fears: that Christian men would degenerate into feminine weakness in a church dominated by women; that Anglo-Saxon Protestants would be overwhelmed by the influx of swarthy Catholics; that infidels would roll back the gains won by previous generations of valiant missionaries. When the horrors of world war induced a national pacifism, liberal Protestants finally sidled away from this cult of masculine piety. But Putney detects the strange reemergence of a recognizably similar masculine orthodoxy in a new setting: conservative Protestants have taken up the cause in initiatives such as Promise Keepers and Athletes in Action. A fascinating stu With vigorous prose, Putney shows how in the late 19th century protestant clergy and lay leaders of the muscular Christianity movement abandoned the sentimentality and feminine forms of Victorian religion for a new model that stressed action rather than reflection, and aggression rather than gentility...Advocates of muscular Christianity promoted organized sports and outdoor activities like camping to build bodies able to evangelize and effect social reform...[Putney's] arguments on the construction of muscular Christianity add much to our understanding of the Progressive era and American cultural imperialism. Highly recommended.--Randall M. Miller Library Journal (10/15/2001) captivating. In an age when Christian leaders like Bill McCartney are again using athletics to get men into the church, this study couldn't be more timely. cause in initiatives such as Promise Keepers and Athletes in Action. A fascinating study shedding light on a hidden link between the liberal Protestants of the past and the fundamentalists of today. social reform...[Putney's] arguments on the construction of muscular Christianity add much to our understanding of the Progressive era and American cultural imperialism. Highly recommended. tried to do it by linking Christianity to manly sports. YThis fascinating study offers a fresh angle on gender issues and our attitudes about sports today. -- C. R. Dallas Morning News (12/29/2001) Long relegated to occasional academic journal articles and mediocre, hagiographic books, the relationship between Protestantism and sports in America now has the definitive treatise the topic has long deserved...If historians will find Putney's revisions fascinating, the general reader will also be riveted by the story he tells; his prose is as vigorous as his subject matter, and the anecdotes he scatters liberally throughout the book are captivating. In an age when Christian leaders like Bill McCartney are again using athletics to get men into the church, this study couldn't be more timely.

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