Muscular Christianity Quotes

A famous cigarette billboard pictures a curly-headed, bronze-faced, muscular macho with a cigarette hanging out the side of his mouth. The sign reads 'Where a man belongs.' That is a lie. Where a man belongs is at the bedside of his children, leading in devotion and prayer. Where a man belongs is leading his family to the house of God. Where a man belongs is up early and alone with God seeking vision and direction for the family.

Man shall not live on bread alone, it doesn’t have enough protein.

Shocking as it may seem, love—not of the modern, sentimental variety, but a medieval, muscular one, characterized by Christian altruism, agape—was the primary driving force behind the crusades.

In this way, Jesus might be seen by the faithful as the ultimate “Gentleman Barbarian” — he had the power and capacity to destroy all of his enemies with a wave of the hand, but chose to lay down his life — making the sacrifice not an act of weakness but of perfect and complete will.

If we read the Bible aright, we read a book which teaches us to go forth and do the work of the Lord; to do the work of the Lord in the world as we find it; to try to make things better in this world, even if only a little better, because we have lived in it. That kind of work can be done only by the man who is neither a weakling nor a coward; by the man who in the fullest sense of the word is a true Christian.5

Here, the Prophet was born in a settled and stable province of a strong Roman Empire. Much as in our timeline, Islamic civilisation, the dar-al Islam, flourished, but under Roman protection. There were no centuries of inter-faith conflict in Europe – no crusades, for instance. Even in the pre-Christian days, the Romans were always pragmatic about local religions. To the Romans, Islam is a muscular sister creed of the Christianity that is their official state religion.

The savage knows nothing of 'the law of Christ.' He will bear no other's burden. The sick must die; the wounded must perish; the feeble must go to the wall. Only the mightiest and most muscular survive and produce another generation. 'The law of Christ' ends all that. The luggage of life must be distributed. The sick must be nursed; the wounded must be tended; the frail must be cherished. These, too, must be permitted to play their part in the shaping of human destiny. They also may love and wed, and become fathers and mothers. The weaknesses of each are taken back into the blood of the race. The frailty of each becomes part of the common heritage. And, in the last result, if our men are not all Apollos, and if our women do not all resemble Venus de Medici, it is largely because we have millions with us who, but for 'the law of Christ/ operating on rational ideals, would have had no existence at all. In a Christian land, under Christian laws, we bear each other's burdens, we carry each other's luggage. It is the law of Christ, the law of the cross, a sacrificial law. The difference between savagery and civilization is simply this, that we have learned, in our very flesh and blood, to bear each other's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.

As explained in the first chapter, human beings are physically hardwired to constantly move about and exercise. Every day, we build up a lot of stress, and physical exercise provides an outlet to get this out of our system so we can stay healthy. In the modern world, our stress is exacerbated by our incessant consumption of negative news and by rapid changes in our culture and norms. Negativity and confusion add stress to the body. Exercise will help manage this by releasing neurotransmitters, called endorphins, into our body to manage our response. Exercise temporarily mimics the fight-or-flight response that you may feel when you are stressed. But in the long run, it will help calm and de-stress you. Endorphins help calm your responses and ultimately result in removing the built-up stresses from our lives. Studies have shown that people experience positive changes after just one or two cardio sessions. Exercise will also help you sleep, which is directly correlated with lower stress and anxiety.3 Exercise

The testimony is followed by another montage of Team Impact feats of strength. “Ladies and Gentlemen,” an amped up announcer voice a la Monster Truck Rally proclaims, “We are Team Impaaaaact. Standing on faith tonight let’s give it up for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the one, the only, the Risen Warrioooooor!” Are they talking about Jesus? Is he a cage fighter or the Lamb of God? If ever there was a cross-denying tribute to a theology of glory, it would be Team Impact. As is the case with the rest of TBN, the scandal of Jesus’ birth, life, teachings, death, and resurrection are ignored entirely in favor of a Jesus-as-Rambo theology; here the Lord just kicks ass and takes names, much like the freakishly muscular Team Impact guys. Taking one’s Christology from a couple of chapters of Revelation (ignoring the central Christ image, that of the Lamb who was slain) rather than the gospels is baffling to me. I recently saw an “inspirational” self-mocking emerging church poster. The word “incarnational” rested below an image of a heavily tattooed guy wearing a crown of thorns made of barbed wire. The caption read “What would Jesus do? I’m pretty sure he’d do stuff I think is cool.” We all wish to make Christ in our own image because the truth of a God who dies is too much. We’ll believe anything but that, and if that anything happens to bring us power and victory and glory then all the better.

I have a problem with Saint Paul, who never actually met Jesus, and with whoever it was who wrote the book of Revelation (it was definitely not Saint John). I also take issue with the idea that Jesus, after the Crucifixion and Resurrection, started working out and riding horses and having second thoughts about the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes. Where did this new muscular Christ come from? What are the four horsemen of the apocalypse so pissed about? What situation could possibly be made better by unleashing war, pestilence, famine, and death?

Se han establecido una serie de recomendaciones de AF para los adultos basadas en la evidencia científica para facilitar un estado de salud óptimo. En el año 2010, la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS) actualizó sus recomendaciones sobre AF para la salud (WHO, 2010), que consisten en acumular al menos 150 minutos de actividad física de moderada a vigorosa intensidad (AFMV) o 75 minutos de intensidad vigorosa o una combinación de ambas por semana en bloques de actividad aeróbica de 10 minutos como mínimo. Con el fin de obtener mayores beneficios para la salud, se debe incrementar la actividad aeróbica a 300 minutos semanales de intensidad moderada o 150 minutos de intensidad vigorosa o una combinación de ambas. Además, se debe complementar con actividades de fortalecimiento muscular que trabajen los principales grupos musculares dos días a la semana.

It was no surprise that upper-class and upper-middle-class young men thronged the recruitment halls. They had been primed for war on the playing fields, in their self-regulated peer societies, through the ethos of muscular Christianity.

Truly, if there were a drug that did everything exercise did with no repercussions, it would be the most valuable item on the planet. So why isn’t everyone “lining up” to “buy” this “drug?

There is a pure light of virtue that passes through a prism and refracts the colors of masculinity and femininity. Masculinity and femininity are like two instruments playing the same note. Even when they do the same thing, they sound different.

To reject God is to untether the Earth from its orbit around the sun. To drift aimlessly in the hollow void of endless space.

Humans do not develop without strain. The mind develops greater endurance, moral fiber, understanding, and depth through the stress of trials and struggles in life. The mind that never endures any discomfort or trouble will, in all likelihood, crumble when real, prolonged stress is applied.

Nobody received creatine through the placenta; nobody was breastfed whey protein; you can always work out and become stronger than you currently are.

Meekness is strength contained and controlled. It is carrying a sword and keeping it sheathed. It is having a feral ferocity capable of overwhelming anyone—yet having the self-control to refrain from using an iota more than necessary.

Being assertive, using harsh words in the face of wicked evil, showing anger at sin, and turning tables are not un-Christlike. In fact, they are precisely Christlike.

Exemplars of virtue move us more than the ethical maxims of philosophy.

The cross you bear is the most difficult for you precisely because you are the one who has the most to gain from it.

Laws, when properly placed, clarify the way to maximally flourish.

Doing smaller things consistently will reap more results than doing big things spontaneously.

When conflict is temporarily avoided, it becomes delayed and magnified.

We use meekness to harnesses the passion of anger unto the good of reason. Just as Jesus did.

God’s glory is like an iridescent crystal with infinite sides. When you first lift the crystal, you look at it from one angle and are made privy to His infinite majesty. Then you turn the crystal around ever so slightly to see another angle. This angle highlights another side of God’s infinite glory, yet this side looks nothing like the previous side. It captures a part of God’s glory from a completely different perspective. You turn the crystal again and you see a third side of God in an entirely new perspective. Completely different in kind from the first two sides. And you can continue doing this an infinite number of times.

We must understand that God has given us all the necessary amount of faith that we need to believe and trust His Word. Then what is the issue? Why are there so many Christians who find it difficult to believe God? Why does the supernatural seem elusive to so many? It is very simple; they have not exercised their faith, and therefore it is weak. Faith is the muscular system of the spiritual realm. Like our physical muscles, it increases with use. You didn’t do anything to earn your muscles, but you still need to use them. Muscles are developed! If you never exercise your physical muscles they will atrophy. Many believers are weak in faith, and as a result they are building their house on sand. They are unable to weather the storms of life. The Word of God says: And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you (Matthew 17:20 KJV).

Much as the Nazis created an "Aryan Jesus" because the real Semitic Jesus was not to their liking, the Lite Christians have created an American Jesus or a Muscular Jesus or a Consumerist Jesus because they don't like the real nonviolent/turn-the-other-cheek/love-your-enemy/meek-shall-inherit-the-earth/easier-for-a-camel-to-go-through-the-eye-of-a-needle-than-for-a-rich-man-to-enter-heaven/drive-the-moneychangers-from-the-temple Jesus. They simply re-create Jesus in their own image.

The least of the muscular Christians has hold of the old chivalrous and Christian belief, that a man's body is given him to be trained and brought into subjection, and then used for the protection of the weak, the advancement of all righteous causes, and the subduing of the earth which God has given to the children of men. He does not hold that mere strength or activity are in themselves worthy of any respect or worship, or that one man is a bit better than another because he can knock him down, or carry a bigger sack of potatoes than he.

I quite agree that the Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort, but it does not begin in comfort . . . In religion as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth — only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair.” –C.S. Lewis

Different scholars have lent a different order, and more or fewer steps to the journey, but its three big stages are separation, initiation, and return, and these are some of the basics contained within those stages: Hero receives a call to adventure Leaves his ordinary life Receives supernatural aid Crosses a threshold that separates him from the world he has known Gathers allies for his quest Faces test, trials, and challenges Undergoes an ordeal Dies a physical or spiritual death Undergoes transformation and apotheosis (becoming godlike) Gains a reward or magic elixir Journeys back home Shares the reward and wisdom he’s gained with others Becomes master of the two worlds he’s passed through Gains greater freedom

Sharp of tongue, deft in debate, and unafraid of conflict, challenging the status quo, or causing offense, Jesus was anything but safe and predictable. Far from hiding in private solitude, and playing it small, Jesus was a public figure, a revolutionary who rigorously confronted the establishment, and who preached such a confrontational and audacious message that he was ultimately killed for it.

While Jesus does not directly charge his followers with fighting human foes (though there have been those who have found an implicit justification for such in the name of a righteous cause), many of the faith’s adherents have seen the gospel as a call to continue Christ’s cause by engaging in another kind of warfare — one waged on the spiritual plane. The Bible is full of references both to contest — what the ancient Greeks called agon — and to war. Individuals wrestle with God (both metaphorically and literally), and the apostle Paul refers to believers as “athletes” who must “train” their souls and run the race set before them. Believers are to gird themselves about with spiritual “armor,” and wield the “sword of the spirit” in battling unseen forces and directly confronting the conflict between good and evil.

Though undoubtedly deplorable sexism existed in this movement, astute women supporters picked up the truth behind muscular Christianity and challenged women as much as men. Fitness advocate Helen McKinstry asked what man contemplating marriage would choose a “delicate, anaemic, hothouse plant type of girl” over a “strong, full-blooded, physically courageous woman, a companion for her husband on the golf links and a playmate with her children? “2 Of course, even this sounds sexist to contemporary ears (getting in shape because otherwise men won’t want you), but some, such as YWCA secretary Mary Dunn, called women to fitness for the sake of the spiritual challenge that lay before them: Muscular women wanted, young women. What kind? Those to whom the Lord can say, “Do this or that for me,” and who can respond to the hardest command, the carrying out of which will mean endurance, a knowledge of the principles of the conservation of energy and the putting forth of will power through bodily power. It will mean the clear shining of a flowing soul through a transparent medium, instead of the cloudy glass of an … ill-used body.3

Contrary to some expectations. Europe's brush with modern power revived its Christian culture. The 'Railway Age' was also the age of muscular Christianity.

As often as possible, Mrs Smythe would occupy a pew in the parish church and nod approvingly as the vicar sermonised on the evils of the world. From time to time he would catch her eye and beam a smile. He approved of her doings, being quite a champion of such Muscular Christianity.

In a recent talk on Mary, Ruth Fox, a Benedictine sister who is president of the Federation of St. Gertrude, a group of women’s monasteries, reclaims Mary as a strong peasant woman and asks why, in art and statuary, she is almost always presented “as a teenage beauty queen, forever eighteen years old and ... perfectly manicured.” Depictions of Mary as a wealthy Renaissance woman do far outnumber those that make her look like a woman capable of walking the hill country of Judea and giving birth in a barn, and I believe that Fox has asked a provocative question, perhaps a prophetic one. I wonder if, as Christians, both Protestant and Catholic, seek to reclaim the Mary of scripture, we may well require more depictions of her as a robust, and even muscular, woman, in both youth and old age.

In this case, the Freuds had it right. No ideal standard of mental health works scientifically. Or, in the eloquent words of Leston Havens, “Standards of health on the basis of admirable traits ignore the way human situations can call up the need for the most bizarre qualities.” If this is true, then mental health can only be scientifically defined in its norm and normal standards, as defined above. Only Grinker’s homoclites—average but not ideal—are mentally healthy. Searching for cultural references to help illustrate his newly defined class of people, Grinker called to mind a fictional depiction of “muscular Christian” normality, from a Thornton Wilder novel: The hero, who is a missionary, religious, unrealistic, and not very intelligent, goes around the country doing good, converting people, and accepting no return. He says: “George Brush is my name America’s my nation Ludington’s my dwelling place and Heaven’s my destination.