Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling: A Critique of Hypermasculinity in American Christianity

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the presence of hypermasculine ideals in modern Protestant circles. Since masculinity has only recently become a subject of academic study, I explore the origins of expressions such as hypermasculinity and the related terms, toxic and hegemonic masculinity. I draw from existing scholarship to explain some of the causes and consequences of this behavior and to describe how this phenomenon has reached Protestant Christians in the United States, focusing on modern times with an analysis of John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart. My thesis shows that hypermasculinity is utterly incompatible with Christianity, therefore I invite churches to resist the phenomenon by constructing a model of masculinity analogous to the way of Jesus Christ.