Erecting the Pulpit: Muscular Christianity from Teddy Roosevelt to Donald Trump

In this pugnacious exposé, Hall (Laughing at the Devil), an associate professor at Duke Divinity School, incisively explores the evolution and influence of a form of Christian nationalism that blends “faith, masculinity, capitalism and political power under the guise of moral leadership.” She traces the roots of this “muscular Christianity” to the mid-19th century, when Victorian cleric Charles Kingsley drew on Darwinism and Christian providentialism to explain how the “survival of the fittest” was ordained by God. The ideology gained ground in early 20th-century America, informing the ethos of elite institutions like the Rockefeller Foundation and later spreading into the evangelical mainstream. Hall scrutinizes how muscular Christianity animates today’s hypermasculine evangelical subcultures, including so-called “cowboy” and “fight club” churches that combine faith principles with a “tough-guy” ethos, as well as networks like “the Family,” a secretive organization that leverages its ties in business, academia, and politics to promote a conservative religious agenda. Despite sometimes getting lost in the weeds (with lengthy descriptions, for example, of popular gatherings held by organizations with Christian nationalist values), Hall persuasively reveals how muscular Christianity has remade the American religious landscape in ways both overt and subtle. Readers will find much to chew on. (May)