Fascinating piece. Thank you for sharing it. As an evangelical who got wrapped into the Driscoll thing as an 18/19 year old, and has now seen through the faults in it, I liked much of your analysis. I’d also say, evangelicalism at its worst is as you describe it. But reading someone like John Stott or to go back further—John Owen, Charles Spurgeon or John Bunyan—brings more nuance than a Driscoll (or his ilk). There is imagery of Pilgrimage, multiple pictures of atonement including Christus Victor, and examples of men who did not choose a culture war version of Christianity, but a robust, Christ-centric vision of men (and women) on a dangerous journey to glory, with the Spirit’s help indwelling and empowering those steps.
I was making an amazing comment here, and then I inadvertently swiped my app, and Substack deleted it. I am very sad! In any event, thank you for this interesting post. I discovered Fight Club and the Orthodox Church at about the same time, and this is prodding interesting connections between those two things I had not fathomed.
Great piece. Sending to a friend that lamented to me that “Church mens ministries are just like this (meme showing sports, Jean shorts, grilling, non alcoholic beer). Instead of being renaissance men interested in things like art, beauty, music, etc it always has to be like we are a bunch of simpletons who like sports, meat, etc”. It is curious to me how often the feminization of Christianity is opined about when I see so much macho man in the Christiansphere. Also, the complaint inherently shows a bias against the feminine.
Really enjoyed this. Thank you!
Fascinating piece. Thank you for sharing it. As an evangelical who got wrapped into the Driscoll thing as an 18/19 year old, and has now seen through the faults in it, I liked much of your analysis. I’d also say, evangelicalism at its worst is as you describe it. But reading someone like John Stott or to go back further—John Owen, Charles Spurgeon or John Bunyan—brings more nuance than a Driscoll (or his ilk). There is imagery of Pilgrimage, multiple pictures of atonement including Christus Victor, and examples of men who did not choose a culture war version of Christianity, but a robust, Christ-centric vision of men (and women) on a dangerous journey to glory, with the Spirit’s help indwelling and empowering those steps.
I was making an amazing comment here, and then I inadvertently swiped my app, and Substack deleted it. I am very sad! In any event, thank you for this interesting post. I discovered Fight Club and the Orthodox Church at about the same time, and this is prodding interesting connections between those two things I had not fathomed.
Great piece. Sending to a friend that lamented to me that “Church mens ministries are just like this (meme showing sports, Jean shorts, grilling, non alcoholic beer). Instead of being renaissance men interested in things like art, beauty, music, etc it always has to be like we are a bunch of simpletons who like sports, meat, etc”. It is curious to me how often the feminization of Christianity is opined about when I see so much macho man in the Christiansphere. Also, the complaint inherently shows a bias against the feminine.
Excellent. You might also appreciate this from Nathan Beacom, which pulls on many of these same threads: https://comment.org/men-only-want-one-thing/