Do Real Men Pray? Images of the Christian Man and Male Spirituality in White Protestant America. Charles H. Lippy. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee, 2005, xii + 275 pp.
Real men pray. Real men have spiritual lives. Real men have an intimate connection with God. Real men protect, provide for, and nourish their families. Real men, however, vary regarding how they do each of these things. Charles H. Lippy states that part of his research quest, of which this book is the culmination, was to discover why women have maintained a near two-to-one ratio of church membership over their male counterparts. Moreover, Lippy realized when preparing to teach a course on female spirituality at his university, that studies on American female spirituality and African- American spirituality have no parallel with respect to Caucasian male spirituality. Lippy aims at filling this void. In so doing, Lippy studied the role of white men in Protestant Christianity in American history. He offers six general patterns of Caucasian male spirituality which are not intended to be exhaustive but to be representative of common patterns. Lippy admits that he has only scratched the surface, but his overall contention is that white men in America have been– and are–spiritually and religiously different than their female counterparts or their fellow African-American citizens.
Lippy calls the Caucasian colonial settlers dutiful patriarchs, who attempted to live-out their conviction that God had given them authority over their families. These dutiful patriarchs sought at all times to reflect God’s will in their dealings primarily with their families as well as others. After the Revolutionary War, Caucasian men assumed the role of gentlemen entrepreneurs, who linked civility within their households with the notion of making a living. The third pattern, according to Lippy, occurred during the closing decades of the nineteenth century, when white men emerged as courageous adventurers, who, after the flight to urban areas, sought to retain some semblance of their masculine nature by flexing their proverbial muscle in athletic activities within the Church environment. Following World War I, and before the Great Depression, a fourth pattern emerged, the efficient businessman, which stressed discipline and a strong work ethic as the true basis of–and nourishment for–spiritual life. Following the tumultuous period of the Great Depression and World War II, white men were influenced by the positive thinking philosophy of Norman Vincent Peale and Andrew Carnegie. When this paradigm faded, the men’s movement of the Promise Keepers began to promote a faithful leader model in the 1980’s and 1990’s. It promoted servant leadership as the heart of Christianity.
Each of the six paradigms has a corresponding male figure with which to identify. For the dutiful patriarch, Lippy lists Samuel Sewell, the judge often linked to the Salem Witch Trials, and, for gentleman entrepreneur, William Dodge, long a benefactor to Union Theological Seminary and cofounder of Phelps, Dodge, and Company. Robert E. Speer, well-known in Reformed theological circles for his quest of ecumenical unity, is named by Lippy as model for the courageous adventurers. Bruce Barton, an advocate of unique views regarding the manhood of Jesus Christ as well as the leadership style of the Apostle Paul, is mentioned as efficient businessman, because he sought to integrate his love for God with his business ventures. Robert Schuller, long-time pastor of Crystal Cathedral and known for his Hour of Power broadcast on television, is noted by Lippy as an example of the positive thinking paradigm. Finally, Bill McCartney, author, coach, and founder of the Promise Keepers represents the faithful leader paradigm. Lippy argues that these six models share similarities, including the observation that Caucasian American men are generally more outward-directed than inward-directed. These men are often more pragmatic than theoretical, downplaying doctrine and theology in favor of spiritual praxis. Last but not least, they tend to emphasize action over contemplation.
I believe that Lippy has provided an extensive chronological history in which he shows that real men do pray, but in manners differently from the female gender, and that spirituality is not limited to the domain of women. In fact, Lippy’s six paradigms of Caucasian male spirituality serve to demonstrate that white American men have always had a deep and profound spirituality. This book is a well-documented and needed addition to religious studies within the American context.
Bradford McCall
Regent University