Masculinity

The Rev. Dr. Rod Rosenbladt came to the Advent a couple of years ago and gave a talk on the theology of the Reformers as it relates to fatherhood. He said many things, but the thing he said that most relates to this topic is the role of the man as being priest to his family. Rosenbladt said true masculinity is very subtle and absolving; lacking in bombast yet girded in strength. It has a lot to do with the wielder of power laying that power and justice down and showing mercy.

The book Iron John by the poet Robert Bly also talks about the subject of masculinity and laments the demise of male rites of initiation. He especially notes how Protestant ministers in particular have become quite effeminate. This I can certainly see in the sentimentality of modern, Western worship and emphasis on moral imperatives over human depravity and the forgiveness of sins.

Here is an excerpt from an interview of Harvey Mansfield in the Wall Street Journal. I am interested in his take because it seems to come from a conservative with little reference to God. The examples of manliness he gives seem to belie a certain "triumph of the will" Nietzsche-like social Darwinism. This may not be the case, but Schwarzenegger? That guy is all bombast and shows complete contempt for those he views as weak. It may be telling that Mansfield is considered an authority on Niccolo Machiavelli. The other examples are more acceptable, I think.

So, read the article and let me know how you define a kind of "strength of the will" masculinity over and against Christian masculinity. What do you think male initiation (in the truly Christian sense, i.e. not Rick Warren sentimentality - think Luther, Calvin, Augustine, Rosenbladt, etc.) looks like, to pull Bly into the conversation?

[Harvey] Mansfield's contention that women and men are not the same is now widely supported by social scientists. The core of his definition of manliness--"confidence in a risky situation"--is not so far from that of biologists and sociologists, who find men to be more abstract in their thinking and aggressive in their behavior than women, who are more contextual in their thinking and conciliatory in their behavior.

Science is good for confirming what "common sense" already tells us, Mr. Mansfield allows, but beyond that, he has little use for it: "Science is a particular enemy of manliness. Manliness asserts something you can't scientifically prove, namely the importance of human beings." Science simply sees people as just another part of the natural world. But what manly men assert, according to Mr. Mansfield, is that "they are important and that their party, their country, their society, their group, whatever it may be, is important." As examples, Mr. Mansfield offers Arnold Schwarzenegger (predictably, since he's no girly-man), Humphrey Bogart, Donald Rumsfeld and Margaret Thatcher--yes, women can occasionally be manly. (Both Clintons are manly in their own ways--Hillary is "formidable," while Bill is the "envy of vulgar men.")

Achilles, though, is Mr. Mansfield's model of a manly man. "He challenged his boss, Agamemnon, who had taken his girlfriend from him. He didn't so much make a complaint against him as to . . . say that what Agamemnon had done was the act of an inferior person, and that only true heroes, the men of virtue like Achilles, are fit to rule." In other words, Achilles raised the stakes and resolved to defend a cause larger than himself--the manly action par excellence.

Read the whole interview here.