Muscular Quakerism? The society of friends and youth movements in Britain, c.1900-1950

This article examines the relationship of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) to organised youth movements in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century. It shows that, despite the Quaker testimony against war and militarism, many members of the Society participated, often enthusiastically, in youth organisations that were considered militaristic by many other Friends. In doing so, they openly acknowledged the 'military virtues', and were willing, especially during the Second World War, to collaborate with the military state in undertaking youth work. Although they tended to emphasise the spiritual aspects of the youth movements in which they participated, Quaker involvement in youth organisations – such as the Scouts, the wartime Youth Service and Outward Bound – reflected an acknowledgement of the relationship between militarism and character-building that had underpinned some earlier versions of muscular Christianity. The article emphasises the ubiquity of the language of 'character' in Quaker discussions of youth and adolescence in the first half of the twentieth century, although there was no single Quaker position on the suitability of particular youth organisations. Three conclusions are drawn. First, Quakers both shaped and were influenced by evolving conceptions of the role of youth work, particularly the emergence of an agenda of 'personal growth' in place of 'character-building'. Second, however, the appeal of the 'military virtues', and the benefits of the military experience in promoting them, remained a powerful dimension in Quaker approaches to youth movements. Finally, the experience of British Quakers in this period demonstrates the extent of the ‘cultural assimilation’ of Nonconformist denominations into the mainstream of British life during this period

Putting the Pieces Together: Examining the Division Between Christian and Secular Elements of Muscular Christianity

Around the turn of the 20th century a movement called Muscular Christianity was extremely influential in The United States. Despite the name, there was a very strong secular aspect to this movement. A portion of this movement was dedicated to more closely uniting masculinity with the church and Christianity. This group consisted of various personalities and groups that supported a similar message for men and the church at large. The most apparent aspect of this was the Men and Religion Forward Movement of 1911-12. This was a major rally and marketing based movement of men in Christianity. The many pieces of Muscular Christianity all held in common the social turbulence, changing expectations for the genders, and the changes in employment brought on by the industrial revolution. Muscular Christianity had as one of its elements the M&RFM. This relation consists of the M&RFM being the single most concentrated example of the Christian movement within Muscular Christianity. There is a division within Muscular Christianity between its secular and Christian components

The Olympic Spirit: Peace and Goodwill via Sport

The Olympic Charter exalts a philosophy of life that seeks to use sport to communicate positive values of peace, understanding, fair play and other moral and ethical principles. In this way, Olympism shares many of the goals of other sports movements, such as Muscular Christianity, Muscular Judaism and Athleticism

Joventut, esport i religió: el moviment Muscular Christianity

En aquest article es palesen les relacions que s'han establert des de l'antigor entre el cristianisme i el món de l'esport. Tant és així que el cristianisme primitiu va utilitzar les metàfores esportives per a la transmissió del missatge cristià. Així, el cristià apareix com un autèntic atleta de Crist que obté, després de la justa carrera o del lleial combat, la seva recompensa. Sobre la base d'aquesta tradició, Thomas Arnold (1795-1842) va encunyar la idea del gentleman cristià, que, al seu torn, va influir sobre Charles Kingsley (1819-1857), propulsor del moviment Muscular Christianity, que va promoure l'ús de l'esport com a vehicle d'evangelització. Després de l'èxit de la novel·la Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857) de Thomas Hughes (1822-1896), aquest moviment es va estendre per Anglaterra i els Estats Units, on destaca el paper exercit per l'YMCA a favor de l'educació física com a regeneració de la joventut. Totes aquestes iniciatives foren ben conegudes per Coubertin (1863-1937), que va conferir al moviment olímpic internacional, restablert l'any 1896, una inequívoca dimensió religiosa: la religió dels atletes.In this article the relations established from ancient times between Christianity and the world of sport are made evident. It is well known that the primitive Christianity used sportive metaphor for the transmission of the Christian Message. Thus, the Christian is seen as an authentic athlete of Christ who would obtain, after a just race or a loyal combat, its reward. On the basis of this tradition Thomas Arnold (1795-1842) cast the idea of the Christian gentlemen which, in its turn, had an influence on Charles Kingsley (1819-1857), sponsor of the Muscular Christianity movement that promoted the use of sport as a vehicle of evangelization. After the success of Thomas Hughes’s (1822-1896) novel Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857), this movement spread throughout England and the United States, where YMCA stood out for its leading role in the regeneration of youth. All these initiatives were well known by Coubertin (1863-1937), who conferred an unequivocal religious dimension to the International Olympic Movement (re-established in 1896): the religion of the athletes

Tom Brown’s schooldays: ‘sportsex’ in Victorian Britain

Thomas Hughes’ idealised vision of life at Rugby public school is one of the best-known novels in the English language. It was regarded from the outset as a founding text of ‘muscular Christianity’. Contrary to the intentions of its author, it helped to inaugurate the cult of ‘manly’ athleticism that swept through the English public schools in the second half of the nineteenth-century. I argue that the novel reveals tensions around gender and sexuality that were in play among public schoolboys during the second half of the nineteenth-century. These tensions exploded into full public view in the trial of Oscar Wilde in 1895 and were instrumental in helping to establish a structure of homophobia within homosocial settings that has lasted through to the present day

Emasculated Men: The Perception and Treatment of Shell-Shocked Soldiers During World War I

World War I differed from wars of the past in a variety of ways. Thus, it created a host of modern medical and psychological problems for soldiers, military leaders, and physicians to overcome such as shell shock. Since shell shock was a relatively new phenomenon in warfare, the medical and military communities were uncertain about how to interpret its appearance and decrease its occurrence in their armed forces. As a result, shell shock fell victim to several social constructs of the time. One of the main societal factors that fueled the negative stigmatization of shell-shocked soldiers during the war was militarized masculinity. Using a variety of primary sources including military recruitment posters, medical journals, and other military and medical records, this paper aims to contribute to the current historiographical literature on the period by focusing exclusively on how societal perceptions of masculinity ultimately influenced the American and British military’s attitudes towards shell-shocked soldiers and determined the types of treatments used by medical practitioners to relieve soldiers of their debilitating and “effeminate” symptoms

(Board)ing Schools: Rudyard Kipling’s young heroes

Rudyard Kipling’s young male characters, namely Stalky (Stalky & Co. ) and Harvey Cheyne Junior (Captains Courageous), whom he portrays with noticeable admiration, exhibit, on the one hand, circumspection, stoicism, leadership, and stalkiness, on the other hand, the absence of scruples in manipulating those acting in loco parentis to achieve their desired ends. This article aims to examine how these characters can shed light on one another, allowing for a better comprehension of them both. Furthermore, it will explore how the religious archetype of the trinity permeates Stalky & Co.’s composition of characters, and how muscular Christianity shapes Captains Courageous. Stalky and Harvey thrive in a masculine world, access to which requires leaving women behind, substituting them with brotherhoods or identification with the father. The perfect man, Kipling postulates, is the resourceful and courageous rule-bending Christian who is able to keep women and natives in a state of obedience.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Muscular Christian as Schoolmarm

In 1859 the Saturday Review was one of the first journals to associate Charles Kingsley with a younger generation of writers of fiction who fostered the sentiment that power of character in all its shapes goes with goodness. Who does not know, the reviewer asked, all about the \u27short, crisp, black hair,\u27 the \u27pale but healthy complexion,\u27 the \u27iron muscles,\u27 \u27knotted sinews,\u27 \u27vast chests,\u27 \u27long and sinewy arms,\u27 \u27gigantic frames,\u27 and other stock phrases of the same kind which always announce, in contemporary fiction, the advent of a model Christian hero? 1 After Kingsley\u27s death in 187 5, however, Henry James and others spoke up in his defense and correctly identified the novelist George Lawrence, considered by many to be Kingsley\u27s literary disciple, as the real proponent of the brutes commonly called Muscular Christians. 2 Kingsley himself had something much more human in mind, and it was an ideal he preached not only to men but also to women