Can Christians Use the Language of Masculinity and Femininity at All?

The terms are so embedded in common usage that abandoning them entirely can create more confusion than clarity. Still, I would argue that people only have a vague idea of what masculinity and femininity refer to. They are low-definition categories that create "fuzzy sets, not checklists of attributes" that are then used to make judgments about who is living up to those standards and, more problematically, who should be living up to those standards.

Masculinity and femininity are cultural scripts. They represent a relatively durable but not fixed set of socially reinforced expectations about how men and women should think, feel, and behave. Using "masculine and feminine" or "manhood and womanhood" requires a degree of precision that is seldom possible because they are descriptive of cultural expectations, not prescriptive theological norms. A Christian can observe that certain traits have been culturally coded as masculine without claiming that those traits should be developed by all men. Again, manhood is often associated with taking responsibility. That isn't a bad thing. I think everyone—male and female—should be taking responsibility. Tying responsibility to manhood is, at best, an unnecessary step. Why not just urge people to be responsible, brave, on mission, etc.? Piling these and other characteristics under a broader term just makes our language less precise. That imprecision is both inevitable (we do it a lot) and not without implications.

The more theologically precise language is the language of discipleship. Scripture does not use the language of masculinity and femininity as prescriptive categories but the language of faithfulness, love, wisdom, and obedience, categories that apply to all of God's people. When Scripture does address men and women in their specificity, it tends to address them in terms of their relationships and vocations, not in terms of some notion of manhood and womanhood that is inextricably tied to one's sex.

Again, this does not mean the male/female distinction is theologically irrelevant. It is real, and it shapes how we inhabit the world. But the primary evaluative framework Scripture applies to Christian men is not "is this masculine?" but "is this faithful?" Keeping that priority clear is the discipline the language of masculinity tends to obscure.

Key Takeaways: Using the Language Carefully

• Fuzzy Sets: Masculinity and femininity are low-definition cultural scripts, not checklists—yet they are used to judge who is "measuring up."
• Descriptive, Not Prescriptive: These terms describe cultural expectations; they are not normative theological categories.
• Scripture's Vocabulary: The Bible evaluates God's people using the language of faithfulness, love, wisdom, and obedience—applied to all believers regardless of sex.
• The "So What": The governing question for a Christian man is not "is this masculine?" but "is this faithful?"