Questions
How Does Cultural Masculinity Function as a Sacred-Social Order?
Summary: Cultural masculinity operates as a rival sacred-social order—complete with its own saints, rituals, and hierarchy of goods—that forms men below the level of conscious decision and competes with Christ for authority over how men understand themselves.
A sacred-social order, as historian Kevin Flatt describes it, is a framework for organizing all of life under a set of suprahuman purposes and authorities. Every culture has one. The sacred-social order expresses what is valued, rewarded, and expected. It also determines what it means to be a full or respected member of the community.
Cultural masculinity operates as a kind of sacred-social order with its own saints, rituals, hierarchy of goods, and account of what a man should be. Its saints are figures of physical toughness, competitive success, and stoic self-sufficiency. Its rituals include the suppression of weakness, the pursuit of dominance, and the performance of strength. Its hierarchy places certain traits above others so that aggression, independence, and toughness are preferred to vulnerability, interdependence, and gentleness.
Like every sacred-social order, cultural masculinity forms its adherents below the level of conscious decision. Men who grow up inside it absorb its logic as common sense. They do not experience it as ideology, but as reality. In part, that feature makes it relatively resistant to critique. Pointing out that machismo is culturally constructed feels, to those shaped by it, like a denial of something obvious and natural.
Christians need to recognize that when they import cultural masculinity into their theological frameworks without examination, they are allowing a rival sacred order to govern their understanding of what it means to be male. The church's task is not to baptize that order but to relocate every aspect of human life, including the way men understand themselves, under the authority of God.
Key Takeaways: Sacred-Social Order
- Core Concept: A sacred-social order (Kevin Flatt) organizes life under suprahuman purposes and authorities—every culture has one.
- Masculinity's Saints and Rituals: Cultural masculinity elevates toughness, dominance, and stoic self-sufficiency; its rituals include the suppression of weakness and the performance of strength.
- Why It Resists Critique: Adherents experience it not as ideology but as reality, which makes challenges feel like denials of the obvious.
- The "So What": The church's task is not to baptize cultural masculinity but to relocate male identity under the authority of God.
About the Author — James Spencer, PhD, is a theologian, author, and host of the Thinking Christian podcast, where he writes and speaks on Christian formation, political theology, and technology. He holds a PhD in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and an MA in Biblical Exegesis from Wheaton College. He serves as president of the D. L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, as an Associate Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology, and as adjunct faculty in Wheaton College’s MA in Leadership program. His forthcoming book is Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press). Learn more at thinkingchristian.org.