Sport
Bloomfield, Anne.  “Muscular Christian or Mystic? Charles Kingsley Reappraised,” International Journal of the History of Sport Vol. 11, No. 2 (August 1994): 172-190.
In her treatment of Kingsley’s role in the history of human movement, sport, and aesthetic gymnastics, Bloomfield examines his mystical nature and his changing views on the religiosity of body, mind and soul.  She also hypothesizes that Kingsley’s views were influenced by the work of the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772).  She concludes that Kingsley’s work in human movement must be viewed as being more significant than his commonly accepted role in Muscular Christianity.  “Kingsley possessed a deep commitment to the mystical aspects of Christianity as well as its physical elements, and in terms of the philosophical development of human movement this accords him a place uniting two important branches of human movement, the sports ethic and the dance ethic, both of which currently stand distanced and bifurcated at polemical points within a common aesthetic field” (189).

Muscular Christianity; Swedenborg, Emanuel; Sport; Athleticism; Sexuality.
 

Brown, David  “Prevailing Attitudes Towards Sport, Physical Exercise and Society in the 1870s: Impressions from Canadian Periodicals,” Canadian Journal of History of Sport Vol. 17, No. 2 (Dec. 1986): 58-70.
From a study of Canadian periodicals Brown concludes that there was a distinct link between, one the one hand, the prevalence in Victorian Canada of muscular Christianity and an emphasis on sport and, on the other, the works of Kingsley as well as of Thomas Hughes.

Muscular Christianity; Sport.
 

Harrington, Henry R.  “Charles Kingsley's Fallen Athlete,” Victorian Studies Vol. 21, No. 1 (Autumn 1977): 73-86.
In his treatment of Kingsley's views on sport, physical activity, and the nature of manliness, Harrington declares that Kingsley, who detested the notion of muscular Christianity, held that the manly Christian's passions must be checked by "'feminine virtue'", that is morality and self-restraint.  Kingsley believed that it was difficult for the manly Christian to come down from the exalted sporting moment which offered distraction from the problems of normal existence and from sexual frustration.  To do so is essentially a fall.  However, "because of 'feminine virtue', it is a fortunate fall.  Within Kingsley's private theodicy, the fallen athlete and the manly Christian are one in a fictional world redeemed by his faith in 'feminine virtue'" (74).

Athleticsm; Sport; Muscular Christianity; Females..
 

Lucas, John A. “Victorian 'Muscular Christianity': Prologue to the Olympic Games Philosophy,” Olympic Review Vol. 99/100 (1976): 49-52.
Lucas discusses the origin of and the influences on the philosophy of sport of Baron Pierre de Coupertin (1863-1937), founder of the modern Olympic Games.  He reveals that Coupertin’s Pedagogie Sportive (1934) credits Kingsley, as well as Arnold, with changing the definition and the course of non-professional sport.

Sport; Muscular Christianity; Manliness.

 
Return to Top