List of contributors; Acknowledgements; Introduction: muscular Christianity: reading and writing the male social body Donald E. Hall; Part I. Foundations of Muscular Christianity: 1. The volcano and the cathedral: muscular Christianity and the origins of primal manliness David Rosen; 2. On the making and unmaking of monsters: Christian socialism, muscular Christianity, and the metaphorization of class conflict Donald E. Hall; 3. Christian manliness and national identity: the problematic construction of a racially 'pure' nation C. J. W.-L. Wee; Part II: Varieties of Muscular Christianity: 4. Charles Kingsley's scientific treatment of gender Laura Fasick; 5. Young England: muscular Christianity and the politics of the body in Tom Brown's Schooldays Dennis W. Allen; 6. Muscular spirituality in George MacDonald's Curdie Books John Pennington; 7. 'Degenerate effeminacy' and the making of a masculine spirituality in the sermons of Ralph Waldo Emerson Susan L. Roberson; Part III. Responses to Muscular Christianity: 8. The confidence man: empire and the deconstruction of muscular Christianity in The Mystery of Edwin Drood David Faulkner; 9. The re-subjection of 'Lucas Malet': Charles Kingsley's daughter and the response to muscular Christianity Patricia Srebrnik; 10. Pater's muscular aestheticism James Eli Adams; Index.