Muscular Christianity has attracted scholarly attention for decades. What phenomena have scholars missed, or misinterpreted? What new methods can we bring to studying men, muscular masculinity, and Christianity? What difference does theology make? What role does race play in the construction of muscular religious identity? Where should we direct our scholarly attention now? Its history has renewed relevance for understanding forms of Christianity today, and this panel explores several historical moments that can help us consider the present. Focusing on the US, this panel considers both Catholic and Prostestant gender formations, provides insight into the role of whiteness, brings new concepts such as celebrity, and reevaluates classic concepts such as sport.
This paper explores how American Muscular Christianity from 1880 to 1920 remade the image of Christ into a celebrity persona, forsaking his divinity and recasting Jesus as the ultimate Nietzschean superman.
In the 1920s, Notre Dame football became a highly visible symbol of Catholic triumphalism in the United States. The successes of the Fighting Irish on the gridiron not only aided in strengthening cultural identity among Catholics, but also inspired American Catholic men and boys to frequently practice their religion. How so? This paper explores this question by examining select writings from John O’Hara, the Prefect of Religion at Notre Dame, who frequently connected the piety of Notre Dame’s football players to the intersections of Catholicism, masculinity, and sports.
| Darrius Hills | darrius.hills@morgan.edu | View |