Reconstructionist dominion theology directly shaped evangelical boyhood training for war

Evidence

Douglas Wilson published Future Men: Raising Boys to Fight Giants. … Wilson’s Future Men was a perfectly timed primer on militant masculinity that reached far beyond his enclave. Looking to Theodore Roosevelt as a model of Christian masculinity, Wilson asserted that as future men, boys were “future warriors.” Consistent with Reconstructionist thought, the concept of dominion was central to Wilson’s definition of masculinity; like Adam in the Garden of Eden, all men were made to exercise dominion. Boys had an innate drive to conquer and subdue, and they should be trained to be adventurous and visionary, to become “lords in the earth.” For this task, it was essential for young boys to play with toy swords and guns, and for older boys to be trained in the use of real firearms. Indeed, Wilson called for a “theology of fist fighting” to instruct boys when, where, and how to fight. Lest there be any doubt, Wilson clarified that Christianity was in no way pacifistic. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 407

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s critique project: Wilson is a prime example of consumer-culture artifacts (books, toy guns, ‘theology of fist fighting’) transmitting militant masculinity outside formal institutions — support for the method Du Mez uses. — connects to: Boykin cultivated Christian nationalist networks in the military and disaster-relief NGOs — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 95
• SEED: Angle: tracing the ‘theology of fist fighting’ and its toy-gun doctrine from Reconstructionism into contemporary homeschool/classical Christian networks.