An image of the Men’s Titanic Memorial, shot ninety-four years to the hour after the R.M.S. Titanic began to sink in the North Atlantic ice fields.

“You and I will be better in life and death because of the men’s good example. The real message of this great and overwhelming affliction is that it is the latest revelation of the power of the cross...The men who stood on that deck in the presence of disaster exhibited a power of self restraint, exhibited it so quietly too, that it can not be explained on any ground of mere evolution...but the Son of Man came into a world that was lost, and so the men upon the Titanic sacrificed themselves for the women and children. The women did not ask for the sacrifice but it was made. Those women who go about “shrieking for their rights” want something very different.” Sermon at St. Bartholomew’s Church, New York, Rev. Leighton Parks (1852-1938) April 21, 1912

It was a great honor to deliver a keynote entitled “Manliness” to more than two hundred fathers and sons gathered on the evening of April 14, 2006, for the Tenth Anniversary Celebration of the Christian Boys’ and Men’s Titanic Society.

The debate over the meaning and origin of manliness is ancient. Dr. Harvey Mansfield of Harvard argues that the Greek concept of Thumos was foundational to the development of the Western notion of manliness. The twentieth century reduced much of the debate over the existence and meaning of manliness to a debate of nature vs. nurture with social psychologists reducing viewing manliness as a learned societal convention, and neo-darwinians and evolutionary genoists debating over the extent to which this quality is essentially genetic.

In my message, I argue that these theories of manliness, from the ancient Greeks to the present day genoists, fall short. The Bible alone provides a sturdy and definitive philosophical and practical foundation for what could be called “the doctrine of manliness.” The Holy Bible not only addresses “the blessed man,” “the righteous man,” “the upright man,” and “the blameless man,” but it calls for the emergence of the manly man. It does this by negative and positive declarations and patterns, by direct exhortation and divine command.

Speaking to Job, God almighty declared: “Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me” (Job 40:7).

David prepared his son for leadership by exhorting him: “I go the way of all the earth. Be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a man” (1 Kings 2:2).

The Apostle Paul explained: “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit ye like men, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13).

The Bible describes the consequences and horrors of unmanliness: “As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths....Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts.” (Isaiah 3: 12, 16, 17)

In fact, it is from the Bible, not moral perverts like Aristotle and Plato, that we are able to understand the true meaning of manly virtues. We learn from Scripture that duty, self-sacrifice for the weak, principled action, faith which overcomes fear, and honorable conduct regardless of circumstance are essential elements of the individual who “quit[s]” himself like a man.

We live at a time of tremendous unmanliness. It is unmanly to send women to war. It is unmanly to view children as a burden, rather than a reward. It is unmanly to force our wives to exchange industrious, productive domesticity (e.g. Titus 2 and Proverbs 31) for independent careerism. It is unmanly to leave our daughters unprotected and uncovered before the world. It is unmanly for the fathers of this generation to surrender leadership at home, in the church, and in the gates of the land to the mothers of this generation. It is unmanly for men to be more concerned about their “needs” than their responsibilities. The list goes on.

In times like these, it is important not only that we remember and consider great historical examples of manliness, and that we understand the spiritual foundation for a godly vision of manliness, but that we rebuild a culture of virtuous, manly boyhood for the sake of our Gospel witness and for the future of our sons and daughters. Those of us committed to the cause must be prepared with manly resolve for great opposition. Manliness, with its implications for biblical patriarchy, is not for the weak of heart. Opposing an amazonian war machine, or female dominance over the local church, or the lifestyle which creates absentee fatherhood, or Margaret Sanger’s contraceptive vision to separate life from love, thus liberating men and women from God’s design for the womb—-is a formula for inspiring sustained opposition. Along the way, there will be malicious scoffers, slandering critics, and pompous purveyors of pop culture to ridicule advocates of biblical manliness. Such men long for the status quo.

They can have it.

We are men of warfare (Ephesians 6:12).

“We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious effort; the man who never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life.” Teddy Roosevelt

To receive a copy of this message on manliness, make an online donation of any amount during the month of April to help the work of Vision Forum Ministries provide encouragement to the Christian family.