Harris, Styron.  “The 'Muscular Novel': Medium of a Victorian Ideal,” Tennessee Philological Bulletin Vol. 27 (1990): 6-13.
Harris discusses the notion of “muscular Christianity”.  It is epitomized in three dominant figures of the novels: Amyas Leigh in Westward Ho!, Tom Thurnall in Two Years Ago, and Hereward in Hereward the Wake.  Harris also discusses Kingsley’s influence on Thomas Hughes and on Hughes’s portrayal of muscular Christianity in his novels Tom Brown’s Schooldays, The Scouring of White Horse, and Tom Brown at Oxford.  Both novelists took care to distinguish the muscular Christian from one who is mere muscle and both abhorred the hero of George Alfred Lawrence’s novel Guy Livingstone who personified “muscularity without Christianity or moral considerations”.  Nevertheless, Harris agrees with David Newsome that despite their broader meaning of muscular Christianity, “the muscular novel according to Kingsley and Hughes contributed to the immense vogue of athletics from the late sixties onwards” (11).
Muscular Christianity; Hughes, Thomas; Westward Ho!; Two Years Ago; Hereward the Wake.
 

Redmond, Gerald.  “Before Hughes and Kingsley: The Origins and Evolution of ‘Muscular Christianity’ in English Children’s Literature,” Sporting Fictions: Proceedings of a Conference Held at the University of Birmingham (September, 1981): 8-35.
From a thorough examination of earlier children’s literature, Redmond argues that the presentation of the notion of muscular Christianity in the novels of Kingsley and Hughes is the culmination of a trend that began in the eighteenth century.  Contrary to much opinion, neither Kingsley nor Hughes were the founders of this doctrine.  Redmond contends that certain elements of muscular Christianity may be found in the works of such authors as Rousseau, George Mogridge, William Howitt, William Clarke, William Martin, S.G. Goodrich, Frederick Marryat, Maria Edgeworth, Dorothy Kilner, Harriet Martineau, Catherine Sinclair, among others.  “. . . as far as muscular Christianity is concerned, Hughes and Kingsley may have reaped the harvest, but the seeds were planted and the crop carefully tended by many lesser-known laborers beforehand” (30).
Muscular Christianity; Hughes, Thomas.
 

Redmond, Gerald. "The First Tom Brown's Schooldays: Origins and Evolution of ‘Muscular Christianity’ in Children’s Literature, 1762-1857," Quest Vol. 30 (Summer 1978): 4-18.
Redmond examines the origin and evolution of the notion of muscular Christianity in children’s literature during the period 1762 to 1857.  He declares that elements of this notion may be found before Kingsley and Hughes adopted it in such writers as Rousseau, Dorothy Kilner, George Mogridge, William Howitt, William Clarke, William Martin, S. G. Goodrich, Maria Edgeworth, Frederick Marryat, Harriet Martineau among others. The works of Hughes and Kingsley might be considered as the climax of literary treatment of muscular Christianity, “as the culmination of a gradual process of indoctrination which began in the previous century” (8).
Muscular Christianity; Hughes, Thomas.
 

Rosen, David. "The Volcano and the Cathedral: Muscular Christianity and the Origins of Primal Manliness," in Hall, Donald E. (ed.). Muscular Christianity: Embodying the Victorian Age (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1994): 17-44.
David Rosen provides a lengthy analysis of the development of Kingsley's views on muscular Christianity and manliness. He stresses that these were complex, many-sided notions and that Kingsley's views on these topics, as well as his practical involvement in complementary areas, continuously evolved throughout his life. Rosen argues that among the many influences on Kingsley's concept of manliness was the notion of Platonic thumos which Kingsley considered was a primal manly force, the root of all virtue and which was manifested through sex, fighting, and morality. Rosen contends that Kingsley's views on manliness and related topics were highly influential and that diverse notions of Anglo-American masculinity from the mid-nineteenth century to the present owe much to Kingsley.
Manliness; Muscular Christianity; Sexuality; Plato; Carlyle; Hughes, Thomas.
 

Tozer, Malcolm.  “Thomas Hughes: ‘Tom Brown’ versus ‘True Manliness’,” Physical Education Review Vol. 12, No. 1 (1989): 44-48.
Tozer declares that Thomas Hughes’s Tom Brown’s Schooldays was largely responsible for the emphasis of the physical in the definition of the Victorian gentlemen and for the era’s “emerging clamour of hearty athleticism” (44).  Thus, Tozer contends, Hughes severely distorted the far broader ideal of manliness of his Christian Socialist associates, Charles Kingsley and F. D. Maurice.
Manliness; Hughes, Thomas; Muscular Christianity; Christian Socialism.