Podcast: Jonathan Culbreath
on Andrew Tate, the manosphere, and neopagan masculinity
Jonathan writes:
If Tate’s own words bear any truth, then the “masculinity” he preaches is little more than a cover for something deeply perverse and abusive, which no “conservatives” worthy of the name—especially not Christian conservatives—should have any business defending.
In our discussion, we ultimately arrive to the conclusion that the neopagan philosophical anthropology is vastly different from the Christian one. Thus why people like Tate and Peterson harp on the virtue of strength for its own sake, and rarely get around to acknowledging its ultimate end: fatherhood. As I state in my NCR piece on Peterson:
It seems to me that Peterson misunderstands what is most essential about Christianity. It is not merely a set of moral teachings, ideas or beliefs. It is not an ideology that upholds "traditional values." It is an encounter with a Person, an experience of God's love in the flesh. Surely Jesus himself (as well as the many male saints) embodied the natural masculine virtues that Peterson celebrates. But for Jesus, such virtues were not ends in themselves. Jesus didn’t die on the cross out of a sense of manly courage or duty, but out of desire to give himself to humanity out of love.
The Christian notion of a "masculine genius" highlights a particular "mode of giving" (to use the words of Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar) that incorporates certain natural virtues, elevating them to the supernatural ideal to which we are all called: fatherhood and motherhood, which is ultimately a call to love creatively and generate life.
Check out Jonathan’s article. And check out my articles on Tate and Peterson, and look out for my upcoming essay in Hedgehog Review on bootstrapping and the manosphere.
Follow Jonathan @maestrojmc
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It seems like a stretch to link Jesus and fatherhood, as he died without issue. And the Church has deprived countless good men of legitimate paternity. From where I look, the Church and Tate both have a history of extreme misogyny, what Peterson offers contains more possibility and isn't a long way from ideas Fay Weldon was expressing back at the turn of this century.