Posted: February 18th, 2022

The article by Dowland (2011) explores the relationship between religion, war, and masculinity

The article by Dowland (2011) explores the relationship between religion, war, and masculinity. lt explains how many American wars often ignores the influence of religion. Some of the reasons identified includes that the chaos of the wars had minimal connection to ritual and devotion. Alternatively, the perspectives of Evangelicals and Buddhists have failed to account for the religious phenomenon produced by wars. ln the recent years, the religious historians have explored into the religious experiences of persons involved during the wartimes. From the article, it determined that numerous religious scholars determined that issues of manhood come up alongside the questions about religion during the wars. Starting 1860 to 1975, the wars that took place helped to determine the American Christians’ civil religion that led to the valorization of soldiers and affirmation of required violence. The article also explains that in the 19th century, the Americans were forced to deal with the tension between manliness and the aspect of Christian devotion. Considering the chaos in the South, the evangelicals emphasized on the influence of individual’s control over their morals that was used by most white southerners to defend their honor (Dowland, 2011). ln spite of all, there was a strong tension between evangelical Christianity and the masculine culture.
Concept of Muscular Christianity ln the context of the article, muscular Christianity is described the situation whereby the Muscular Christians argued that Jesus was a robust, manly personality and promoted for the development of aggressive and masculine faith on both the playing fields and battlefields. The phenomenon also pushed for the formation of alliances between evangelical Christians and the masculine institutions such as military and professional football organizations. ln 19th century, a rapid system of amateur and professional athletics obtained a significant share of the American culture. Some protestants were in the forefront of developing amateur athletics while others were concerned that the games undermined the moral seriousness needed of the believers. However, the exaltation of the athletics by the protestants started with a crisis. Elites were concerned that the rise of the cities and continued feminization of the churches brought about the crisis of masculinity (Blazer, 2012). To respond to the crisis, the White protestants in the urban areas in Northeast developed muscular Christianity. The muscular Christians were successful persons that led to the creation of a new picture of Jesus. ln the past, the preachers and artists viewed Jesus as a meek and simple person. However, the muscular Christians argued the meek image was wrong. They referred to Jesus as a manly redeemer.
Reaction l find it interesting that the Muscular Christians were able to push for the hardening of Jesus and the sanctioning of the sports whereby more athletes turned to the Christians. For example, more athletes sought to become evangelicals. Even though it is interesting and complex, the muscular Christians were able to create new organizations to spread the gospel to new generations. ln addition, l believe there is a heightened push for evangelization with the growing popularity of the sports to create positive alliances with popular athletics. This aspect is good towards bring about the Christians values into the society. However, the evangelization process was unable to deal with corruption and sexual values of popular sports and wars. l think it is clear that the subsequent generations of protestants and evangelicals have pushed for American war efforts and extended into amateur and professional athletics. However, it is highly hypocritical and worrying that they have also ignored the violence, corruption, and continued scandals associated with wars and big sports. As the alliances between evangelical Christians and masculine organizations continues to solidify, more efforts should be put in dealing with unethical corruption and violence.

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