Abstract :
Christian ideals of manliness were articulated by writers across the religious spectrum
throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. At their heart was the shared ideal of the imitation of
Christ, an all-encompassing Christian ideal of personhood. Whilst non-partisanship was itself an important
ideal, theological differences and disagreements over the strictness of ideals led to accusations that some
Christians, attacked as ‘ moralists ’ or ‘ enthusiasts ’, undermined or neglected ideals of manliness. At the
same time, there were attempts to associate Christian ideals of manliness exclusively with the emerging
‘ Evangelical ’ party. In the historiography of masculinity in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
however, Christian ideals have often been marginalized, and, when considered, they have tended to be
misconstrued by the adoption of church-party approaches. This review offers a detailed critique of Leonore
Davidoff and Catherine Hall’s account of Evangelical ideals of manliness in Family fortunes : men and
women of the English middle class, 1780–1850 (1987; rev. edn, 2002). Their notion of distinctive
‘ Evangelical ’ ideals of manliness does not withstand scrutiny, and the key concepts associated with them,
including ‘ domesticity ’, ‘ the calling ’, ‘ the world ’, ‘ public ’, and ‘ private ’, demand revision. At the same
time, they gave insufficient consideration to ‘ solitude ’ and ‘ charity ’.
