This collection explores the impact of religion on the formation of men and masculinities in twentieth-century Britain. Religion is explored beyond the traditional boundaries of church worship and institutional structures to encompass the diverse cultures of male sexuality, home life, war, work, immigration, leisure and sectarian politics. Issues of change, such as the decline of single-sex associational settings, the theological shifts and changing fortunes of sects, the varying visibility of queer and homosexual cultures, and the shifting boundaries and collapsing distinctions between clergy and laypeople are explored in depth.
This book explores the courtship and marriage of Gwyneth Murray, an English woman, and a Canadian, Harry Logan, who wrote in the personae of their vagina (Dardanella) and penis (Peter) during World War I. Through an analysis of their daily correspondence over nearly a decade, it uncovers the couple’s changing attitudes to the intersection of sexuality and religion, to marriage and childrearing, as they navigated the transition from Victorian to modern values.