The Case for Christian Masculinity
A Review of Chase Davis’s Offensive Christianity
It’s no secret that masculinity is in a bad way today. Physical weakness and sedentary lifestyles are the norm. A culture of consumption has enveloped us, and the household has shifted from being a place of productivity to essentially a recharging station. Too many online influencers and movements—even in the niche corners of the Reformed world—seem to foster more drama rather than provide sound wisdom and practical advice for self-mastery. The attack on male-only spaces, a major driver of the lack of deep friendships among men, has only compounded these issues.
Against these civilizational trends, Chase Davis has written a manual for men, Offensive Christianity: Restoring the Strength of Men in a Feminized Age. It charts a path that men can follow to become what God intended them to be. Far from an angry call to “man up” or a barely disguised plea for androgyny, Davis shows in straightforward prose what masculinity is in a world that’s used to heaping scorn or worse on men.
For Davis, “offensive” does not mean rudeness or the kind of derogatory insults you’ll find in the comments section of an X post. It’s a vision of masculinity that shapes the world in light of the created order. This is a far cry from allowing the god of this world and his minions, in the powerful words of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to “take their revenge upon the world for their own inadequacy by seeking to destroy those who can.”
A lack of masculinity is a central reason why the pillars of Western civilization are crumbling, and nations are losing their vitality and will to survive. Davis argues that “Sex Gnosticism” is the default teaching of our age. It places identity over biology, thereby flattening the natural differences between men and women. Even in the church, Scripture is too often used to make the case for androgyny, as if Christ coming as a man were an accident rather than pointing to the very hierarchy of creation He came to redeem.
In a short survey, Davis highlights teachings that have eroded masculinity in recent history, including romanticism, pietism, Nietzscheanism, and, of course, feminism. Modern evangelicalism is also a source of our modern plight. Davis argues that evangelicalism shifted from being “a movement concerned chiefly with the authority of Scripture” to “one chiefly concerned with managing public relations with the unbelieving world.” But candid, frank speech in principle is not a sin—especially in a world awash in threats to younger generations that soft words and irenic tones alone will be unable to counter.
This is the difference between seeing the male priesthood as ultimately arbitrary and understanding that it flows directly from what God has encoded into our DNA. Christian men, Davis writes, need to be “high agency” people who “know their duties, take responsibility,” and “are willing to be disagreeable” when circumstances demand.
As even the pagan Cicero points out in On Duties, masculinity (and femininity) rightly understood means working in “conformity with nature.” This only makes sense if masculinity means fulfilling what one is by nature rather than adopting a “role” or collapsing biological sex and the process of becoming that flows from that nature, a hallmark of functional egalitarian literature that’s being churned out by “conservative” publishing houses.
The Sin of Effeminacy
Opposed to masculinity is effeminacy, which the Bible teaches is a kind of softness that unduly focuses on the life of ease, comfort, and luxury. In older translations of 1 Corinthians 6:9, it’s listed as one of the sins that will leave one outside the Kingdom of God. Part of effeminacy is a hyperfocus on the self, a tendency Alexis de Tocqueville saw in democratic regimes. As a colleague born in a former Soviet satellite once told me, what drew the Soviet Union’s ire more than anything else was people trying to form networks for causes other than Communist Party matters. The leadership saw this as a more serious threat than public denouncements of Stalin.
A consistent vision of masculinity, Davis writes, means embracing “an offensive Christianity that boldly asserts authority and action over passive reflection.” This is a welcome message in an age when men are generally taught, explicitly or implicitly, that timidity and passivity are how Christians ought to behave in public. Unfortunately, as Davis points out, the inertia of our times pulls men toward a “low-T Christianity” that is “soft, therapeutic, and conflict averse.”
The embodied form of masculinity Davis extols points to a truth too often neglected by many evangelicals: nature does not annihilate grace. Instead, grace perfects nature, bringing it into greater conformity with eternal ends. And of course, this is good Christology, as Christ rules from heaven enfleshed.
This is contrary to a tendency among pastors and public theologians to make far too little of the body, as they work on the foundation of an overrealized eschatology. One obvious way to see this is to ask yourself the following question: When was the last time you heard a sermon on gluttony? More than likely, the answer is zero.
But that’s strange considering how seriously the Bible takes gluttony. In both the Old and New Testaments, gluttony is mentioned multiple times as a chief attribute of sinners.
It’s condemned in two places in Proverbs 23 alone. The second verse of that chapter contains the seemingly harsh metaphorical command to “put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.” In Deuteronomy 21, gluttony is mentioned as a sin that’s characteristic of a rebellious son. And in Philippians, St. Paul writes that the enemies of the cross are those whose “god is their belly.”
None of this is meant to condemn natural differences in men that cannot be altered, but to call men to repent of the thoughts and actions they do have control over—and to provide a goal through which to channel and improve their natural abilities.
Masculinity Required
Of all the books I’ve read on masculinity in recent years, Offensive Christianity is the first one that’s conversant with wider subcultures, especially in fitness. Davis discusses “biohacking,” or the “new technology, nutritional supplements, or lifestyle modifications” that can improve fitness. Creatine, cold plunges, and monitoring sleep through an Apple Watch are also discussed. More advanced methods are mentioned as well, including cryotherapy, IV drips, and red light therapy.
This advice is, quite frankly, light-years beyond what you’ll normally find in books about masculinity from established Reformed sources, much less from Christian publishing houses. Though well-intentioned, they tend not to give much practical advice that matches the reality many Americans experience—especially younger generations.
Davis concludes by noting, “We need men capable of aggression, assertiveness, and self-defense who are submitted to Christ.” Christians should not be giving up power—they should be doing what Christian men have been doing for millennia: using it to protect their families, their communities, and their nations for Christ’s glory.
Contrary to modern teachings that can turn Christ into a pacifist, Davis points out that the biblical understanding of meekness is not “weakness, but the willing submission of strength to a higher authority.” It is about “the presence of mastery,” not about “the absence of power.” When was the last time you heard a pastor preach that type of message?
Though original sin has corrupted creation, it did not annul God’s command to exercise dominion over the earth. Adam named all the living creatures, including Eve (twice), before the serpent laid its snare. Read through the lens of the New Testament, Genesis 1 and 2 show Adam as a type of Christ. He was a prophet, priest, and king, with all of the attendant responsibilities. And though the Fall made it more difficult to fulfill these duties, it did not eliminate them.
In an age where purity spirals and blackpilling abound on online forums where young men congregate, Davis’s book is a clarion call for men to rediscover their will and take prudent and decisive action for the cause of Christ.
Men should be building a network of friends in the analog world to counteract the effects of liquid modernity. They should work to improve their churches, rebuild crumbling institutions, and seek to build new ones. And they must develop and channel their ambition while cultivating gratitude as they inevitably encounter difficulties when working on these important tasks.
As Davis notes, we “need men formed by both the library and in the field. Minds sharpened in theology and hands calloused by labor. Hearts captivated by the beauty of Christ and wills steeled for the battle at hand.”
Offensive Christianity is the manual that can help men reassert themselves in a world that desperately needs the virtues they can offer.