Christian Masculinity: Men and Religion in Northern Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Christianity has markedly patriarchal traits, and by tradition men have played the dominant role in the affairs of all churches. Men ran the churches, and the clergy long remained exclusively male, but at the parochial level women began to dominate more and more. In middle-class, liberal, anti-clerical, and socialist circles, the exercise of religion became identified as a female concern. But was this really the case? What were the outlets for male religiosity? And how to explain the large numbers of men who were committed to the church and the Christian faith? These are the questions addressed in the present book.