Book Recommendation: The Strenuous Life

The Strenuous Life: Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of the American Athlete

Author: Ryan Swenson

Brilliance Publishing, Inc., Copyright 2019

Muscular Christianity. It’s a phrase that in the modern world evokes – well, evokes nothing most likely. Ask average people on the street – even those with a decent knowledge of history – about the concept, and you’re likely to be met with blank, confused stares. In the Victorian Era, however, the idea was a very big deal on both sides of the Atlantic. In short, Muscular Christianity was a movement/philosophy that recognized a tie between Christian morality and physical fitness, and sought to enhance such traits as self-discipline, courage and patriotism through hard physical training. Proponents of the philosophy took the idea in many different directions, from increasing male participation in church services to expanding the British Empire. Regardless of the aims pursued by its various adherents, however, the core principle of Muscular Christianity remained fixed: that virtue and physical fitness go hand in hand.
This had an enormous impact on the world of athletics. Many of our most popular sports in the modern world – including football, soccer and basketball – either stem directly from the movement or arose in parallel with it. It played a significant role in the beginnings of the YMCA (which, of course, was initially known as the Young Men’s Christian Association). The philosophy is also thought to have influenced Pierre de Coubertin as he worked to develop the modern Olympic Games.

As important and influential as the Muscular Christianity movement was 150 years ago, it’s largely forgotten today, a relic of a hyper-moralistic past that many would just as soon forget. However, the tenets of the movement, and the role they played in shaping the modern world of sports (and beyond), have many lessons for Christian men, as well as for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of modern sports culture. Why do we take morality in sports so seriously? Why do we wince at the idea of amateur and college athletes receiving huge paydays? Where do we get the notion of a pure, moral college or high school athletic program, and why is it something that we seem to collectively long for (even while we know it exists largely in myth)? An understanding of the Muscular Christianity movement provides answers to a lot of these questions.

Ryan Swenson’s book provides a fascinating look inside this culture, its adherents, and its impact both in the movement’s heyday and in the modern world. Swenson focuses on Teddy Roosevelt as the central character, which is entirely appropriate given that Roosevelt not only championed the philosophy, but fully (and intentionally) embodied it better than any other individual of his time. The book’s title is drawn from Roosevelt’s essay of the same name, in which he not only championed the virtues of physical exertion, self-discipline, competition, and courage, but also ties them explicitly to the success of America as a nation. Swenson outlines in detail how Roosevelt, while never a great athlete himself, nonetheless sold the nation on the efficacy of athletic endeavor, and single-handedly imposed his vision of a nation whose young men were strong, durable, and unafraid to “hit the line hard”.

Modern-day sports have, of course, fallen about as far away from morality as possible. Not only do concepts such as virtue and self-discipline often receive eye rolls in the athletic world, but their antitheses are in many cases celebrated. The Strenuous Life provides insight into many of the roots of modern athletics, particularly as they have manifested in America. The book also, whether intentionally or not, provides inspiration to modern Christian men – athletes and otherwise – to aspire to physical fitness, embody courage and virtue in our undertakings, and “hit the line hard” in pursuing the work of Christ.