?MUSCULAR CHRISTIANITY? was a system which
relied upon sport to allow people to grow in a
moral and spiritual way along with their physical
development. It was thought that
. . . in the playing field boys acquire virtues
which no books can give them; not merely
daring and endurance, but, better still temper,
self restraint, fairness, honor, unenvious
approbation of another?s success, and all that
?give and take? of life which stand a man in
good stead when he goes forth into the
world, and without which, indeed, his success
is always maimed and partial [Kingsley
cited from Haley, in Watson et al].1
This system of thought held that
a man?s body is given him to be trained and
brought into subjection and then used for
the protection of the weak, the advancement
of all righteous causes [Hughes, cited in
Watson et al].1
The body . . . [is] . . . a vehicle by which
through gesture the soul could speak
[Blooomfield, cited in Watson et al].1
In the 1800s there was a strong alignment of
Muscular Christianity and the game of Rugby:
If the Muscular Christians and their disciples
in the public schools, given sufficient wit,
had been asked to invent a game that
exhausted boys before they could fall victims
to vice and idleness, which at the same time
instilled the manly virtues of absorbing and
inflicting pain in about equal proportions,
which elevated the team above the individual,
which bred courage, loyalty and discipline,
which as yet had no taint of
professionalism and which, as an added
bonus, occupied 30 boys at a time instead of
a mere twenty two, it is probably something
like rugby that they would have devised.
[Dobbs, cited in Watson et al]1
The idea of Muscular Christianity came from
the Greek ideals of athleticism that comprise the
development of an excellent mind contained
within an excellent body. Plato stated that one
must avoid exercising either the mind or body
without the other to preserve an equal and
healthy balance between the two.
Comparison of students from private and public schools on the spelling performance
