Gender and Christianity in Modern Europe

Case studies upon the use of concepts like feminization and masculinization in relation to christianity

Since the 1970s the feminization thesis has become a powerful trope in the rewriting of the social history of Christendom. However, this ‘thesis' has triggered some vehement debates, given that men have continued to dominate the churches, and the churches themselves have reacted to the association of religion and femininity, often formulated by their critics, by explicitly focusing their appeal to men. In this book the authors critically reflect upon the use of concepts like feminization and masculinization in relation to Christianity. By presenting case studies that adopt different gendered approaches with regard to Christian, mainly Catholic discourses and practices, the authors capture multiple ‘feminizations' and ‘masculinizations' in Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. In particular, it becomes clear that the idea that Christianity took on ‘charicteristically feminine' values and practices cannot withstand the conclusion that what is considered ‘manly' or ‘feminine' depends on time, place, and context, and on the reasons why gendered metaphors are used.

Ebook available in Open Access.
This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

"Gender and Christianity in Modern Europe" was edited by Patrick Pasture, Jan Art and Thomas Buerman.

Patrick Pasture is Professor of History and Director of the Centre for European Studies at KU Leuven.

Jan Art retired as professor of history at the University of Ghent in 2010. He has published widely on 19th and 20th century cultural and religious history, social science methodology in history, and psychohistory.

Yes, "Gender and Christianity in Modern Europe" is part of the "KADOC-Studies on Religion, Culture and Society" series. It's book 10 in the series.

Elena Arigita Maza (Universidad de Granada)
Florian Bock (Ruhr Universität Bochum)
Timothy Brittain‐Catlin (University of Cambridge)
James Chappel (Duke University)
Kim Christiaens (KADOC-KU Leuven)
Kathleen James-Chakraborty (University College Dublin)
​​​​James Kennedy (Utrecht University)
​​​Franziska Metzger (PH Luzern)
Patrick Pasture (MoSa‐KU Leuven) - chairman
Isabelle Saint‐Martin (EPHE Paris)
Thijl Sunier (VU Amsterdam)
Árpád von Klimó (Catholic University of America)
Veerle De Laet (Leuven University Press)
Peter Heyrman (KADOC-KU Leuven) - secretary

Proposals

Proposals and enquiries can be sent to Peter Heyrman. The series welcomes monographs and edited volumes. Book proposals may relate to, for example, the political impact of religion, the dynamics between religion and welfare, and missionary history. All proposals and manuscripts are subject to double blind peer review involving at least one external reviewer (proposals) or at least two (manuscripts). The editors strive towards completing the review of proposals within two months and of complete manuscripts within five months after submission.

Please make use of the submission form to present your manuscript or proposal to our board.
Authors interested in Open Access can consult the available funding options.

Links & Resources

Yes, "Gender and Christianity in Modern Europe" is published Open Access. It is available under a BY-NC license.

CONTENTS

Patrick Pasture
Beyond the feminization thesis.
Gendering the history of Christianity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Bernhard Schneider
The Catholic poor relief discourse and the feminization of the Caritas in early nineteenth-century Germany

Angela Berlis
Celibate or married priests?
Polemical gender discourse in nineteenth-century Catholicism

Jan Art
The Cult of the Virgin Mary, or the feminization of the male element in the Roman Catholic Church? A psycho-historical hypothesis

Hugh McLeod
The 'Sportsman' and the 'Muscular Christian'.
Rival ideals in nineteenth-century England

Thomas Buerman
Lions and lambs at the same time!
Belgian Zouave stories and examples of religious masculinity

Tine Van Osselaer
'From that moment on, I was a man!'.
Images of the Catholic male in the Sacred Heart devotion

Marit Monteiro
Repertoires of Catholic manliness in the Netherlands (1850-1940).
A case study of the Dutch Dominicans

Marieke Smulders
The boys of Saint Dominic 's.
Catholic boys' culture at a minor seminary in interwar Holland

Marjet Derks
Female soldiers and the battle for God.
Gender ambiguities and a Dutch Catholic conversion movement, 1921-1942

Michael E. O'Sullivan
A feminized Church?
German Catholic women, piety, and domesticity, 1918-1938

Bibliography

Index