The Church Impotent [Paperback]

Leon J. Podles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1999 | ISBN-10: 1890626198 | ISBN-13: 978-1890626198 | Edition: 1st

In the stale and overworked field of gender studies, The Church Impotent is the only book to confront the lopsidedly feminine cast of modern Christianity with a profound analysis of its historical and sociological roots. Dr. Podles identifies the masculine traits that once characterized the Christian life but are now commonly considered incompatible with it. In an original and challenging account, he traces three contemporaneous medieval sources: the writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the rise of scholasticism, and the expansion of female monasticism. He contends that though masculinity has been marginalized within Christianity, it cannot be expunged from human society. If detached from Christianity, it reappears as a substitute religion, with unwholesome and even horrific consequences. The church, too, is diminished by its emasculation. Its spirituality becomes individualistic and erotic, tending toward universalism and quietism. In his concluding assessment of the future of men in the church, Dr. Podles examines three aspects of Christianity—initiation, struggle, and fraternal love—through which its virility might be restored.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This groundbreaking book should be read by everyone concerned about the future of Christianity." -- St. Anthony Messenger

"This volume will certainly invite an important discussion." -- National Catholic Reporter

From the Publisher

LEON J. PODLES, a native of Baltimore, earned his bachelor's degree at Providence College and his Ph.D. in English at the University of Virginia. He later studied Old Icelandic at the University of Iceland. He has worked as a teacher and a federal investigator and is now the president of the Crossland Foundation. Among the numerous journals for which he has written are America, American Spectator, Crisis, and American Enterprise, and he is a contributing editor of Touchstone. Dr. Podles and his wife have six children and live in Naples, Florida, and Baltimore.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 286 pages
• Publisher: Richard Vigilante Books; 1st edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890626198
• ISBN-13: 978-1890626198
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #686,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 49 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars sanity at last September 15, 2001

By Anthony M. Esolen

Format:Paperback

There is a scene in C.S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles in which one of the children says to another, about the Christ-figure Aslan, "After all, you know, he isn't a TAME lion." And I believe it was Lewis also who said that perhaps Goodness was a more terrifying thing than we had imagined. Mr. Podles' book reminds us of at least one reason why men do not go to the modern mainline and Catholic churches: it is because those churches have tamed Jesus Christ, and NO LONGER TREMBLE BEFORE HIS MAJESTY. Those Churches are, fundamentally, not serious about what they are doing.

How many people realize that, in the whole of the Gospels, aside from his greeting Nathaniel with the words, "Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no guile," Jesus never praises his disciples, never says that they are good people, never allows them to celebrate themselves; he promises them rewards, but those are for giving up all they have and following him. Indeed, Jesus is often quite sharp with them: "If you, WHO ARE WICKED, know how to give good things," "Get thee behind me, SATAN," "O YE OF LITTLE FAITH." Yet the disciples follow him. Why? Mr. Podles knows why -- men look up to those who love them enough to strengthen them, to discipline them, to make them undertake the arduous adventure. Podles' description of the Penitentes in New Mexico made me wish that I, too, could show my love for Christ in such a drastic way; it nearly made me weep.

But I suppose what most endears this book to me, and what most infuriates me about the rather niggling criticism it has received in two of the reviews here, is that it bothers to take the winning of men's souls seriously, something which the Churches, in their lukewarm love, have found too inconvenient or upsetting to do! How comfortable our mainline Churches have become -- old biddies' clubs! Niceness and smiley faces are not going to save the soul of the tattooed man on the streetcorner: who, by the way, probably has a man's keen and ruthless insight into what is merely sentimental and phony. If he is to be saved, Christ must do the work -- and the one who preaches Christ to him had better have Authority in his -- and I use the pronoun advisedly -- voice.

60 of 74 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars a troubling question that has needed a book badly December 3, 2002

By Ruth Sprague

Format:Hardcover

The author of this book writes from a Catholic perspective (very definitely Roman Catholic, not the Orthodox churches), and there are times I feel that he totally ignores the rest of Christendom. The entire book is often written for Roman Catholics, with little or no regard for evangelicals, Pentecostals, etc. I do believe, however, that this is a book that is long overdue.
Having been raised in a strict Pentecostal church, as a young child I would see a sea of elderly women in the pews, with maybe one or two men here or there. The pastors were men, but it was remarkable to me how few men there were in the audience. I realize that women outlive men for various reasons, especially the elderly, but I do believe there are some real shortcomings in the Western World when it comes to total commitment on the part of men to the Christian faith. The author, L. Podles, concentrates on western Christianity, and compares it to the eastern Orthodox churches and non-Western churches to show how much more "masculine-involved" the non-Western churches are. I believe that this is a little unfair, for you can attend a Russian Orthodox church (or Greek church) anyday and find elderly women and young children "ruling the pews", so to speak. You only need to see pictures of the Orthodox church in Russia to see many elderly women in the congregation, with almost no men. The only men around seem to be the priests.
I blame part of this on the women, for many are church-goers with no real solid Christianity to begin with. They go because all their women friends are there, and it is a great place to meditate and get "away from it all". Such shallowness will not convince someone else to go, and, to put it bluntly, the vast majority of men depend on women for support, especially as they age. The author doesn't quite state my opinion here, but he makes an excellent point that Christianity originally was intended to be a "masculine" religion - self-sacrifice, loving others to the point of going to the grave, total commitment to a cause, these can be thought of as masculine qualities.
The church needs both genders, because without the female, men tend toward nihilism and without the male, the women tend toward pantheism and panentheism, a view I can agree with. Witness the goddess revolution, mostly by women, who embrace a New Age kind of belief that all people will be ok, with universal salvation and no judgment to answer to.
My only hope is that someone of another Christian persuasion, other than Catholic, would write a book on this topic.

31 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended September 10, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

The reaction of the "READER BEWARE" review is not surprising. Yes, some people are going to say this book is highly distorted or narrowly focused. The book does not perfectly address the gender issues in Christianity. But it is, unequivocally, a scholarly analysis of the feminization of Western Chrisianity. The book is highly educational, without getting too abstract or theoretical. If you are a Christian and have any common sense at all, you will agree with much of what Podles has to say. Every pastor, church leader, or lay minister should read this book.