“It’s Not Macho, Is It?”: Contemporary British Christian Men’s Constructions of Masculinity

Religion is a key site for constructions of masculinity, and visions of a gender equal society must include religious men. This study examines how a group of British white, heterosexual, middle-class, lay Anglican men construct masculinities via discourses on church-going, worship styles, and godly submission. The interviewed men express a hybrid form of masculinity, informed by religious faith, that embraces typically “feminine” characteristics such as love, humility, and vulnerability. At the same time, they articulate ideals of heteronormativity and essentialized gender differences that support hegemonic masculinity. The participants engage simultaneously in a selective, “discursive distancing” from, and a discursive alignment with, hegemonic masculinity norms, thus revealing tensions between competing masculinity norms.

Faith, Fame, and Fortune

There are more Christians in Nigeria than in other African country, a demographic situation that has produced a variety of worship styles and communities. The most socially visible is the collection of protean movements, churches, para-ministries, and organizations that scholars designate as Pentecostal-Charismatic movements. Features of these movements include: emphases on the power of the Holy Spirit to produce a new empowered person mandated to live victoriously; vibrant and emotionally charged worship styles; new desires to dominate; and the appropriation of scriptural texts to produce miracles and material well-being. More importantly, the expansion of the Nigerian Pentecostal-Charismatic formations is also driven by its embeddedness within the global neoliberal logic of profit-seeking, competition, and deregulation of the religious market. These features have enabled many of these churches and organizations to preach prosperity doctrines, exhibit wealth, and also engage in commercial practices that blur the boundary between worship organizations and commercial corporations.