Abstract:
Drawing on key aspects of Muscular Christianity identified through this movement’s literature,
this article ventures that the major contemporary Evangelical Christian men’s movement in
South Africa, the Mighty Men Conference (MMC), draws on and harkens back to the concerns
of the Victorian era of Muscular Christianity. Moreover, the article argues that this reversion
should be of concern in the context of a post-apartheid and postcolonial South Africa where
both women’s rights and human rights (especially encompassing racial equality) now form
the core of the country’s identity. In other words, the MMC’s call to men to reclaim their top
position is problematic even while it comes from a place of concern regarding the changing
role of men in a transitional South African landscape.
