Tag: Brian Hillman

Muscular Christianity is a term applied to a religious movement that originated in England in the mid-19th century, with an approach to life and social outreach which emphasizes the benefits of sport and other physical exercise to personal wellbeing, and as a healthy expression of masculinity. In Erecting the Pulpit: Muscular Christianity from Teddy Roosevelt to Donald Trump (Bloomsbury), Amy Laura Hall tours the US looking for contemporary manifestations of Muscular Christianity, and according to our reviewer Brian Hillman they are found in religion rather than sports; however, Hall’s Gonzo journalism makes for a highly readable account of her mission.

From the game’s early days, college football and a strain of muscular Christianity built a mutually reinforcing culture that taught lessons in America’s dominant religious, gendered, and racial belief systems. In his book The Gridiron Gospel: Faith and College Football in Twentieth-Century America (University of Illinois Press) Hunter M. Hampton analyzes the impact of football on Christian college campuses. Brian Hillman is our reviewer, and although he would have liked to hear more of student voices and views, he still finds Hampton’s effort to be an enjoyable-to-read monograph..

In The Myth of Michael Jordan in Popular Culture (Routledge), Tomasz Jacheć examines the life and career of Michael Jordan, one of the greatest athletes in the history of sports, asking how he transcended his sport to become a canonical myth in popular culture. In his review, Brian Hillman notes that the author uses the framework of the “hero’s journey” from Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), and makes good use of the “mytheme” concept. Our reviewer concludes that Jacheć’s effort is an exemplary academic engagement with popular culture.