Masculinity in the Reformation Era

Sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe had firm ideas about what a Christian man should be, and its authorities, secular and religious, worked hard to shape boys and men to fit. These essays follow that effort across France, Switzerland, Spain and Germany. They look at where competing models of manhood failed to agree, and at the strain between the patriarchal ideal and the civic duties men were expected to carry out. Several pieces turn to Martin Luther, who wrote so much about himself, to examine marriage and the gap between expected and actual gender roles.

The contributors include Scott H. Hendrix, Susan C. Karant-Nunn, Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, Ulrike Strasser and Helmut Puff, among others. It suits students and readers of Reformation history who want to see how faith and authority reached into the most ordinary questions of being a man.