Losing the Good Portion: Why Men Are Alienated from Christianity

by Leon J. Podles

"Few books have explored in depth the lack of men in the churches. Podles' book The Church The Feminization of Christianity was the first book-length attempt to examine this phenomenon. David Murrow's Why Men Hate Going to Church was a popular presentation of Podles' material. Marta Trzebiatowska's and Steve Bruce's short Why Are Women More Religious than Men? confines itself almost entirely to modern British and American examples. Losing the Good Why Men Are Alienated from Christianity explores the causes and consequences of the almost millennium-old disparity between the participation of lay men and lay women in the churches of Western Christianity. Podles considers both the anecdotal and statistical evidence for the lack of sermons, church rolls, censuses, and sociological analyses. Podles sees the intellectual roots of lack of men in the Aristotelian understanding of male and female as active and passive, an understanding which has formed all discussion of masculinity and femininity, from Aquinas through Schleiermacher, Barth, and Hans Urs von Balthasar, all of whom saw femininity as more compatible with Christianity than masculinity. Men, according to anthropologists and psychologists, go through a difficult process to attain masculinity and therefore distance themselves from threats to that masculine identity, including Christianity. Men suspected the clergy was effeminate and sexually irregular. Historians of violence have examined the decline in violence in Europe and the civilizing role of the clergy, a role which further alienated men and led to violent anticlericalism Podles examines the presentation of Jesus' masculinity in Scripture and images of Jesus' masculinity in art, the role of thumos in spirituality, and the various movements that have helped keep men connected to the churches. He makes suggestions for possible outreach to men"--

262 pages, Hardcover

Published January 15, 2020

Reviews

[Glenn Wishnew III · Rating 5 out of 5]

Groundbreaking. Exhilarating. Compelling. One of the better books I’ve read in the past couple years.

[Brandon H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book from this author that I have read. I thoroughly enjoyed his first book, The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity (1999) so I was very excited when I saw this offering.

This book primarily focuses on the historical conflict between the Church, (mostly the Catholic Church), and men down through the ages. I found that some chapters were very thought-provoking while others were historically educational. At times, I got bogged down in the latter.

I'm glad I read it because it gave me a historical context to the many issues and common complaints we hear from men regarding church today. It also showed the various attempts that have been made in the different streams of Christendom to win men back to the Church.

Here's a table of contents to give you an idea of the book's layout:

Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
Chapter One: Masculinity
Chapter Two: The Masculinity of Jesus
Chapter Three: The Feminine Christian
Chapter Four: The Clergy and Social Control
Chapter Five: The Sins of the Clergy
Chapter Six: Political Anti-clericalism
Chapter Seven: Masculine Themes in Christianity
Chapter Eight: Targeting Men
Chapter Nine: Men and the Future of the Church
Selected Bibliography
Index

Here's a quote I liked:

In a 2008 internet comment, a young Christian man explained about why young men absented themselves from church: "too many congregations send the message 'holiness =sweetness.' That may be unintentional, but the last thing I want to be as a young Christian is 'sweet.' I'm afraid of ending up as just another precious moments figurine!" Men, especially young men want to be masculine, and the message they get in churches, whether Catholic or Protestant, liberal or conservative, is very often that men must abandon their masculinity and exemplify a caricature of femininity. (70)

I believe that a lot of men, regardless of age, can relate to this sentiment.

This was a 3.5 star read for me but I will round it up to four stars due to the information it provided.