The historical association of religiosity and femininity has troubled theologians at various times as they sought ways to bring men back into religious institutions. At the turn of the twentieth...

The historical association of religiosity and femininity has troubled theologians at various times as they sought ways to bring men back into religious institutions. At the turn of the twentieth century, an entire evangelical movement, called Muscular Christianity, proclaimed Jesus as a he-man, a sort of religious Rambo, not the kind, sweet, angelic image of many mainstream churches. Jesus was no “dough-faced lickspittle proposition,” quipped Billy Sunday, a professional baseball player turned evangelist preacher and leader of the Muscular Christians, “but the greatest scrapper that ever lived” (cited in Kimmel, 1996, p. 171). Today, Promise Keepers use similar images of Jesus as a real man in their efforts to bring men back into the fold.