POC Blog

The random technotheolosophical blogging of Reid S. Monaghan

Soft Patriachs, New Men

Brad Wilcox of the University of Virginia makes the astounding claim in his book Soft Patriarchs, New Men: How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands, that evangelical faith makes men good husbands and dads. From the inside flap:
According to W. Bradford Wilcox, the divergent family ideologies of evangelical and mainline churches do not translate into large differences in family behavior between evangelical and mainline Protestant men who are married with children. Mainline Protestant men, he contends, are "new men" who take a more egalitarian approach to the division of household labor than their conservative peers and a more involved approach to parenting than men with no religious affiliation. Evangelical Protestant men, meanwhile, are "soft patriarchs"--not as authoritarian as some would expect, and given to being more emotional and dedicated to their wives and children than both their mainline and secular counterparts. Thus, Wilcox argues that religion domesticates men in ways that make them more responsive to the aspirations and needs of their immediate families.
A few links: I just put this work in my Amazon.com shopping cart (oh shopping cart, what a troubling thing thou hast become) - I'll put in the queue for late summer... Out...
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