Unmanly · Part Four
The Alternative: Male Discipleship
The corrective to cultural masculinity is not a better cultural account. It is discipleship. A male disciple begins by following Christ and then asks what that following looks like for someone who is male, whether single or married, in the relationships and responsibilities he actually occupies.
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What Is the Difference Between a Male Disciple and a Masculine Christian?
A male disciple begins by following Christ and asks what that following looks like for someone who is male. Becoming a masculine Christian or pursuing biblical manhood too often begins with a culturally defined idea of manhood and asks how Christian faith fits within or reinforces it.
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Does male discipleship look different for single men than for married men?
Being a male disciple does not necessary involve being a Christian husband or father. Discussions of Christian or biblical manhood tend to collapse into discussions of what it means to be a husband and father.
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What is relocation and how does the relocating principle apply to questions of manhood?
The relocating principle, drawn from Paul’s approach in Ephesians 5-6, describes the move by which Christians neither assimilate to a rival sacred-social order nor reject wholesale the social structures they inhabit. Instead, they relocate those structures under the authority of God.
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What does it look like when popular advice about men substitutes cultural instincts for discipleship?
Consider a post I saw on Facebook: “Passivity is not harmless: it’s costly. If you don’t step up and lead, something else will step in and take over.