Men and the Church

Men were in charge, with occasional exceptions, in the times of the Bible. That is, they were the chief protagonists in culture and politics. They formed governments, raised taxes, executed justice and waged wars. I'm sure a more attractive picture of their activities could be given, and I'm sure that women had a more significant influence than I imply, but anyway ...

Insofar as Jesus' teaching, and the significance of his resurrection and revelation as Lord, calls into question the ultimate significance of all human rulership, and achievement, then Jesus could be said to be criticising forms of masculinity. Feminists rejoice.

But, this risks leaving men broken, criticised and undermined and without a positive ideal. What does it mean to be men? What is good about masculinity? Is it really the case that masculinity must be universally repented of?!

Behind this questioning is an awareness of a trend in the UK of a lack of men in Church. It's possible that at least part of the reason for this is because the Church is embarrassed by masculinity. This may reflect wider 'educated' society which, to be be blunt, views football, 'lads mags' and beer as Neanderthal. Would it be any surprise if our educated laity and clergy wondered equally what on earth masculinity was for?

My hope would be that there may be faithful ways of expressing and living the gospel which don't simply critique masculinity but offer an aspirational model of it. It's tempting to define at this stage what that masculinity is, and then to look for affirmation of those qualities in Scripture. We should probably start further back, however, and trust that Scripture and therefore God will reveal to us what we need, not assume we know what we need and look to God to supply it.