Christian Masculinity

Men and Religion in Northern Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Edited by Yvonne Maria Werner

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In the mid-nineteenth century, when the idea of religion as a private matter connected to the home and the female sphere won acceptance among the bourgeois elite, Christian religious practices began to be associated with femininity and soft values. Contemporary critics claimed that religion was incompatible with true manhood, and today's scholars talk about a feminisation of religion. But was this really the case? What expression did male religious faith take at a time when Christianity was losing its status as the foundation of society?

This is the starting point for the research presented in Christian Masculinity. Here we meet Catholic and Protestant men struggling with and for their Christian faith as priests, missionaries, and laymen, as well as ideas and reflections on Christian masculinity in media, fiction, and correspondence of various kinds. Some men engaged in social and missionary work, or strove to harness the masculine combative spirit to Christian ends, while others were eager to show the male character of Christian virtues. This book not only illustrates the importance of religion for the understanding of gender construction, but also the need to take into consideration confessional and institutional aspects of religious identity. 

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Studying Christian masculinity. An introduction
Yvonne Maria Werner

Part I

Key Concepts and theoretical Perspectives

The unrecognised piety of men.
Strategies and success of the re-masculinisation campaign around 1900
Olaf Blaschke

Masculinity and secularisation in twentieth-century Britain
Callum G. Brown

Part II

Visions and Ideals of Christian Manhood

Heroic men and Christian ideals
Tine Van Osselaer and Alexander Maurits

Masculinity, memory, and oblivion in the Dutch Dominican Province, 1930-1950
Marit Monteiro

The man in the clergyman. Swedish priest obituaries, 1905-1937
Anna Prestjan

Crises of faith and the making of Christian masculinities at the turn of the twentieth century
David Tjeder

Part III

Missionary Masculinity

Protestant mission in China. A proletarian perspective
Erik Sidenvall

Alternative masculinity? Catholic missionaries in Scandinavia
Yvonne Maria Werner

Part IV

Fostering Christian Men

The making of Christian men.
An evangelical mission to the Swedish army, c. 1900-1920
Elin Malmer

Danish folk high school and the creation of a new Danish man
Nanna Damsholt

Part V

Transgressing Gender Boundaries

Literary transgressions of masculinity and religion
Inger Littberger Caisou-Rousseau

A manly queen with feminine charm.
Intersectional perspectives on gender
Anders Jarlert

The new Catholic feminism.
Tradition and renewal in Catholic gender theology
Gösta Hallonsten

Bibliography
Contributors
Index
Colophon

Format: Edited volume - paperback

Size: 238 × 170 × 20 mm

324 pages

ISBN: 9789058678737

Publication: June 27, 2011

Series: KADOC-Studies on Religion, Culture and Society 8

Languages: English

Stock item number: 63177

Yvonne Maria Werner is Professor at the Department of History at the Lund University.

Hoewel deze bundel slechts een en een halve bijdrage bevat die betrekking hebben op de religiegeschiedenis van de Nederlanden, is hij niet zozeer daarom, maar vooral om zijn benadering, concepten en theorievorming van groot belang voor het onderzoek naar de geschiedschrijving- katholiek en protestants -van het christendom in de afgelopen twee eeuwen. De bijdragen verschaffen uitstekende aanknopingspunten om zowel het globale historische beeld van de feminisering van het negentiende-eeuwse christendom te handhaven, maar tegelijk ook scherper te krijgen hoe en waarom dat niet noodzakelijk een ontkerstening van het mannelijke deel van de kerkleden, noch een (totale) feminisering van de mannelijke functies binnen de kerk, hoefde te impliceren. Bijzonder aanbevelenswaardig.
Lodewijk Winkeler, Trajecta, Jrg 1-20, 2010-2011, aflevering 3-4


 

Werner provides a significant leap forward in how we understand Christian masculinities of the time, both in terms of the masculine performances they document and the assumption that we view this period in history only through the lens of the English-speaking world.
Joseph Gelfer, Melbourne College of Divinity/AUSTRALIA, Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality, Vol. 6, No. 1, January 2012 47-49