The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill has led to much reflection on the state of the modern evangelical soul. One thing that stood out from the podcast is that Driscoll and many like him have capitalized on the perception that there’s a “crisis of masculinity” — that in some fumbled generational handoff, men at some point forgot how to be men. Pastoral gurus like Driscoll then step in to provide the needed instruction.
It has become something of received wisdom among American evangelicals and even among some secular folk that masculinity is in crisis. Hasn’t the flower of American manhood gone from the hardy souls that stormed the beaches at Normandy and changed flat tires by the roadside to the effete slobs spending every evening in the soft blue glow of internet porn in their parents’ basements?
One thing we must recognize about manhood, though, is that its expression is inescapably tied to economic realities. A large component of the received American vision of manhood is the role of provider. Many assume that providing for a wife and children is the only true and complete expression of manhood. But for much of human history, this wasn’t the case. Though being the patriarch and head of a family was certainly cherished as one epitome of the fully expressed masculine life, other expressions were possible, and for most, in fact, economic realities precluded the kind of independent living a head of family would need to have.
