IRB Media Summary of Kristin Kobes Du Mez's Jesus and John Wayne

Annotation

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 The path that ends with John Wayne as an icon of Christian masculinity is strewn with a colorful cast of characters. By the early twentieth century, Christians recognized that they had a masculinity problem. They couldn't shake the feeling that Christianity didn't feel masculine, and they blamed the faith itself or the Victorian gentility of earlier Christianity.#2 During the 1900s, American Christianity was re-masculinized by allowing men to take back the church. This new, aggressive Christianity was a perfect fit with the emerging American consumer culture.#3 During the First World War, these two competing visions of muscular Christianity were caught up in a frenzied militarism. Liberals insisted that their own social activism exemplified a manly exercise of Christianity, while fundamentalists asserted that a staunch defense of doctrine evinced masculine courage and conviction.#4 Following the war, the more militant model of Christian masculinity lost its appeal. In its place, the ideal of the Christian businessman resurfaced as a prototype of Christian manhood.