As one can see from my two-part essay defending the goodness and actuality of masculinity (the full argument see, part 1 and part 2), as well last week’s essay, it has lately hit me over the head like a ton of bricks that “anthropology is crucial to moral theology. Before knowing what we are to do…..we have to know what we are.” What are human beings? What are Men? What are Women? etc… People are fascinating and we all know it—its why people love reality TV, even when they acknowledge its trash. But as we continue to study people, especially their differences we stumble upon a reality that our entire political order is dead set against—inequality.

It is for this exact reason that the cultural zeitgeist around gender discourse precisely has to do with gender inequality. Women’s groups will march for Lindsay Clancy , while men seemingly advocate for the Tate' brothers’ freedom. Let me put my cards on the table, both did horrible things and should be punished accordingly. BUT, all of our political movements are based around receiving justice for supposed or real victimization. See, we’ve come under a conceit not present throughout human history prior to ourselves—that all inequalities are the result of inequities. In other words, that inequality is always a byproduct of human power, never a reality of nature.

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But let’s take this one step further….its not merely the argument that inequalities are unnatural, but it is also that for anyone to be unequal to another is inherently a dishonour to the person in the submissive or lower position. Thus, inequalities are only ever defended by people in the higher position of power in order to justify their inequitable treatment of their subordinate. No one, could ever be happy in a subordinate position. No one, could ever be happy in a place of submission. No one could ever be happy at the bottom of the ladder. Therefore, if inequalities are unnatural and no one is happy in a subordinate position, then the political task must be to erase all inequalities.

But this postmodern quasi-Marxist political posture, found among the feminists and men of the Manosphere who demand their rights to political power, is utterly foreign to the ancient world of the Scriptures. Note the Psalmist, “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God / than live in the tents of wickedness.” (Psalm 84:10) Or even “Let the righteous strike me, let the faithful correct me/ Never let the oil of the wicked anoint my head” (Psalm 141:5) In both of these instances we have someone rejoicing that they would rather suffer in a lower position, in a position of subordination, then to be in a superior position on an unjust basis.

Here then, anthropologically, we can see that for the human being, moral righteousness is preferable to being at the top of a hierarchy unjustly—indeed it may be better for one’s well-being to be in a subordinate position. Let’s go back to the Clancy and Tate trials—if the price of women having ‘full equality’ in society means giving them the right to kill their children, we should refuse it. Likewise, if the price of men restoring their ‘rightful place’ in society is to allow them to rape teenage girls, we should refuse it. Not every price for ‘equality’ should be paid. But beyond this initial conclusion—that keeping your soul unstained by evil is more important than gaining your equitable share in society’s goods unjustly—there is a further observation we must make but might have much greater trouble accepting.

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St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologiae, in a very obscure passage that could be missed by the casual reader (are there any CASUAL readers of the summa? haha), refutes Origen’s idea that God did not create corporeal creatures. For Origen, for God to have made corporeal creatures would have been unjust because those creatures would clearly be subordinate to spiritual ones. But Aquinas obviously, like the majority of the Christian tradition, believes that God did create corporeal creatures. However he does not think that they are equal to spiritual creatures. Rather, Aquinas argues that God created inequality on purpose.

Oops. Here Aquinas has uttered a blasphemy for our age, but of common presupposition throughout a wide variety of civilizations across time and place—inequality has its place. Now our age has told us immediately to view this as nothing but what a rich and powerful person would say to a poor and powerless person. “Oh, unfortunate you, don’t you know that you are suppose to be poor and powerless, while I am SUPPOSE to be in the position that I am in now?” But to object to the supposed ‘naturality of inequality’ because it has been employed as an argument to justify unequitable treatment of others, misses Aquinas’ argument entirely.

Aquinas has not argued in this passage that God created inequality to justify the oppression of the corporeal creatures by the spiritual creatures, but to show how necessary, both functionally and aesthetically, inequality is for everyone. Kings are not kings without subject. Parents are not parents without children. Or in Aquinas’s terms, the terrace roof of the house is not built without the foundation stones. Inequality may not be the result of a prior injustice or oppression but is rather inherent to the beauty and life of an organism. Not every pinky toe is suppose to be the brain. Not every knee cap is suppose to be the rib cage. Not only then can being in a subordinate position be better for one’s soul, rather than risk corrupting it by seeking power—but indeed if you feel like you are at the bottom of the ladder, perhaps the most comforting realization you may have is that the bottom of the ladder is where you are suppose to be.

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Aquinas in this instance is not arguing that if you are being oppressed, you should just accept the injustice. But what he is arguing however is that not every instance of inequality in your life (in comparison to another’s) is an example of injustice. Its not automatically unjust that as a woman you do not have the biological freedom a man has to abandon a child. Nor similarly is it automatically an injustice that as a man you don’t receive the empathy a woman does when you are having a tough day. People are different, circumstances are unequal. Furthermore, often those trying to gain power end up becoming corrupt in the attempt—see MAGA for example, trying to regain America’s superior position in the world. Lastly, being unequal, in a subordinate position to another, can in many instances be a blessing.

Allow me to speak personally to close. I completely understand that what I am saying can come off as uncaring to those in subordinate position unjustly, but I do not write this as one who has experienced great success in life. Rather, I write as someone who has often had the experience of being a ‘loser,’ of feeling closer to the bottom of social expectations and success, than to the top. It has often occurred to me that if I wanted to improve my ‘lot’ in life, I could easily have turned to exploitative endeavours or corrupted myself to make money or ascend. But it would not be worth losing soul to climb the ladder in that way.

Finally, I have also learned that while things are unequal, that while you may feel like you don’t have your just or fair allotment in life (almost like our supposed meritocracy is a lie!), what you may not see is how you can be serving as the foundation stone, at the bottom, to something much more beautiful. Not only inequality, but being the one ‘short changed’ might only be seen as a dishonour because you have not seen how important your smallness is to the greater canvas. Blessed Charles de Foucauld wrote a prayer of Abandonment to Divine Providence, which needs to be prayed especially when one feels like one is in a position of inequality and subordination to another unjustly

Father, I abandon myself into your hands, do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you: I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me and in all your creatures.
I wish no more than this, O Lord. Into your hands, I commend my soul;
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart;
For I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself:
To surrender myself into your hands without reserve and with boundless confidence. For you are my Father.’

In my beloved favourite sitcom, Community, the lead protagonist, Jeff Winger—a fraudulent lawyer who goes to community college to get a real bachelors degree—at the end of season 1, comes to a profound realization about the central difficultly of his life. It emerges when he has to decide between two romantic ‘options’—(i) Slater, his math teacher, who makes him feel like the man he wants to be—growth-driven, aspirational, charming, and sexy and (ii) Britta who reminds him that he is an arrogant, cynical narcissist, who truly just wants to relax. While his character’s social dilemma is perhaps not relatable to all, his realization certainly is: Do you try to evolve or do you try to know who are you?

Now, given the choice between feeling sexy versus being reminded that you are jerk, perhaps most of us would choose the former! Why would anyone choose ‘knowing who you are’ if we would not like the answer? More than this too, is not our age one that encourages growth, evolution, levelling up? Having worked as a personal trainer, then having tried to run my own business—I can tell you first hand that having an entrepreneurial spirit or—the new catch phrase—having a ‘growth mindset’ are all the rage these days. Given then the importance of becoming the ‘best version’ of yourself, why would anyone choose self-knowledge, especially if it might lead to despair?

Drake articulates this fear of self-knowlegde well in the opening track of his Iceman album—“I don’t do psychedelics because I’m too scared of unpacking/ Sometimes I only see myself in my therapists glasses/ But I’m not taking it serious because she’s very attractive…” At the ripe age of 39, this surpasser of Michael Jackson’s records, tells us that he is scared of unpacking himself but then also in the only moments in which he can truly perceive who he is, becomes easily distracted (perhaps because he wants to be distracted). Whatever one might think of Drake the man, this realization is powerful because it reflects the fear that many of us have, of truly reckoning with ourselves. Drake keeps focusing on beating records, on ‘growth', because its the easier path than trying to know who he is.

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For Jeff Winger, its a choice between becoming a sexy confident version of himself (Slater) or resting content with who he is, even his cynical arrogant self (Britta). For Drake, its a choice between continuing his run as the greatest chart topper of all-time, or walking away from it all in order to deal with his demons and addictions, perhaps even heal. Once framed in this way, we can see better now why self-knowledge might be seen as a second viable option next to the more alluring path of the ‘growth mindset.’ Consistently maintaining a ‘growth mindset’ has you ‘faking-it till you make-it’ for so long, that you not only become exhausted trying to create and sustain a different personality, but perhaps put at risk losing the only thing that ever mattered, your own soul.

Why talk about this on a Substack about masculinity and theology? Simply put, while I endeavour to develop a Catholic Moral theology of masculinity informed by study of the Manosphere, the scriptural narrative of Samson, and the light of St. Aquinas—it has come to my attention that anthropology is crucial to moral theology. Before knowing what we are to do, how we are to ‘grow’ if you will—we have to know what we are. Before we can become ‘the best version of ourselves’ or in the words of Jeff Winger, ‘try to evolve’—we have to know what kind of thing we are. It may seem like a simple premise, but in a world in which some kids have taken the words ‘you can be whatever you want to be’ a little too literally (see ‘Therians’), we need now more than ever to know that in order to know what we can evolve into, we first have to know who we are.

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Ideally people want to help men become better men, more godly men, more virtuous men—indeed is not all my work about that? But we can’t ‘jump the gun.’ We need to know who we are, or at the very least, not be ‘scared of unpacking.’ Anthropology, what we are as human beings, as males, as individuals persons, must come before what we do as a species, as the sexes, or as individual moral agents. It is for this reason, that I am continually reluctant to provide moral advice or god-forbid ‘life coaching’ here. Before I can pontificate about YOUR life, we need to establish not only what human life is, what men are for, but even the deeper question of ‘who you are’ as an individual. Online influencers, life coaches, or self-help gurus (even CATHOLIC ONES) are lying to you if they think they can help you guide your life before they even know who you are.

To know what to do, you have to know what you aim is, but the only way you know your aim and intention in life is, or should be, is by knowing what kind of thing, as a human, as a male, as an individual person, are. It is this work however that people are afraid of doing, but why? We need to go back to Winger. For Winger, the question of Do you try to evolve or do you try to know who are you? is seen as a binary, as an ‘either-or.’ You either evolve or you know who you are, but not both. But the only reason its an ‘either-or’ is due to an underlying unexamined belief that I wholeheartedly reject: to evolve is to discard and to define is to ossify. Winger’s dilemma, or even Drake’s for that matter, is the belief that if you evolve, you become something else, but if you define what you are, you will be stuck.

Let’s see how this unexamined belief affects discussions around sex and gender. For some conservative thinkers, to not define what a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’ is because some people want the freedom to change and ‘evolve’, means that we are discarding the categories altogether. But to another set of people, to define what a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’ is, is frightening because the presumption is that if we know what those are, we cannot evolve or change but will forever be entrapped in ossified gendered norms of a by-gone era. To evolve is to discard and to define is to ossify. But, as I hope to have already shown, we cannot evolve without first defining what we are. We cannot grow without first knowing where we are starting. If it is true then that in order to have a true ‘growth-mindset’ we must first have ‘self-knowledge’ then the idea that ‘to evolve is to discard, or that to define is to ossify’ cannot be true.

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But What does it mean to evolve but not discard? Does a flower discard the soil because it grows toward the sky? Winger is not wrong for desiring Slater, Drake is not wrong to want to smash every billboard record, nor was I wrong to want to lose 60lbs years ago. But if your evolution, your growth requires you to abandon who you are—if Winger had to stop being friends with the rest of his study group, if Drake had to stop being a Canadian child actor, or if I had to stop being an academic—then it would be no longer evolution, no longer growth, but a repudiation, a nihilistic rejection, a self-hatred. If you are being encouraged to ‘grow’, to ‘evolve’, to pursue your ‘best self’ on the basis of hating what you are, you won’t be growing—you’ll become self-destructive.

What does it mean to define but not ossify? Does defining a ‘seed’ as a ‘seed’ keep it from becoming an apple tree? Winger might very well be a cynical narcissist, more at home among misfits than supermodels—but that does not stop him from becoming a kind caring compassionate teacher at that same college. If in your quest to know who and what you are, you think of it only as a limitation to what you can be, then you fail to see the possibilities that arise by knowing what you as yourself can become. Having completed three theology degrees, I had no idea that I had the potential to become a personal trainer! It turns out that who I was, was deeper than what I was doing. Once I discovered that I was a hard-working and disciplined person, suddenly the possibilities grew beyond my imagination.

It takes courage to ‘unpack,’ like it took courage for me to do a PhD. What is truly worthy of fear however, is not coming to knowledge of one’s self, who and what one is, but to forever chase growth and potentials that are contrary to your deepest sense of self. For another time in a more personal piece, I will talk about how pursuing a capitalistic entrepreneurial mindset nearly robbed me of my mental and spiritual health. It might have increase my bank account, but it was taking a toll on my soul. It wasn’t growth, it was self-destruction due to a lack of knowledge of who and what I was. But what I do know, is that coming to know yourself, even your limitations, doesn’t leave you stuck—it gives you a path to chart your growth. The cracks in the pavement don’t limit the plant from being able to grow, they give it a course to go upward. Before anyone advises then as to ‘what to do,’ or how to grow, know that the path that has been given was provided for who and what you truly are.

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Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey raised a typical amount of ‘culture war’ controversy due to whether it would be ‘true’ to Homer, but more especially due to casting choices—in particular Eliot Page, a transperson, in a decidedly male role. Surface issues like my own impression as to how well Page was able to perform the role, or whether it was a ‘c…

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Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical Magnifica Humanitas has been hailed by many as ‘intelligent and thoughtful.’ After having read it myself, I wanted to dig deeper into the wider corpus encyclicals of various popes to understand the context of Catholic Social teaching overall. While historically and theologically quite surprising at times, given their…

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As the razor grazed upon his sleeping head, little tricks of blood began to pour down his face–could he not stay awake one hour? Behold the hour is now at hand, and the mighty one of Israel is to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Not knowing that he was weakened, he …

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Samson Foreshadowing Christ

“Long lay the world in sin and error pining,” so the promised land long awaited the fulfillment of promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you…” Why then had God punished his people to suffer at …

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But the rest of the beta judeans got intimidated by the Philistines. Scared, they ran to Samson to hand over the boy. So after he asks them not to kill him, they bind him up with ropes–but of course, the Spirit of the Lord is with Samson, rushes upon him, then he rips out of the bind like Savage Hulk. …

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Introduction: Why Samson? Demonstration, Intertexts, and Hope

Why Samson? Questions while usually arising from curiosity, this one comes from dismay, repulsion, a general sigh of disgust. Why….Samson? Chronologically, I could answer by narrating the process that led to studying Samson. Personally, I could talk about why I particularly want to stud…

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“Since I'm in a position to talk to these kids and they listen
I ain't no politician, but I'll kick it with 'em a minute
'Cause see, they call me a menace and if the shoe fits, I'll wear it
But if it don't, then y'all'll swallow the truth, grin and bear it

Eminem, “Renegade”, from The Blueprint

Readers of this Substack have frequently seen allusions…

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I'm supposed to be the soldier who never blows his composure
Even though I hold the weight of the whole world on my shoulders

-Eminem, ‘Like Toy Soldiers’ from Encore

Pigeoned-hold successfully into the role of writing about masculinity, it appears that progressives now more than usual are interested in talking about masculinity, which gives me plen…

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“I'm growin' shorter, Pampers cover my hind quarters
I watch my father walk back in my life and it clears up a hurt
I couldn't explain, mama gives me my name
Then hands me over to the doctor and I watch as my spirit reverts
(Na, na, na) Then I'm no longer here on this Earth”

• J.Cole, “The Fall-Off is Inevitable”, The Fall-Off

Samson’s death happens b…

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God, ah, my confession is yours
But, who am I if I don't go to war?
There's opportunity when livin' with loss
I discover myself when I fall short

-Kendrick Lamar, ‘6:16 in LA’

Is masculinity a gift or a performance of a role? We like to think that a man is a man, but phrases like ‘be a man,’ or ‘being emasculated’ suggest that masculinity is not only wh…

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I poured my heart out to you, let down my guard, swear to God
I'll blow my brains in your lap, lay here and die in your arms

• Eminem, ‘Space Bound,’ Recovery

Literally in the fight for his life, Samson has now lied to his love, Delilah, three separate times, trying to preserve his relation to her and to God. But now she’s had enough, this time she…

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In my previous two-part essay on “The Gospel of the Goodness and Actuality of Masculinity” (part 1 & part 2) I came to that “The potentiality and the symbolism of fatherhood is the desirability of men and masculinity.” We could not define what it meant to be male or masculine apart from the effects of procreation, as well as its relation to femininity, …

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For a proper Catholic theology of masculinity then, if we begin with our initial Thomistic premise of the equivalency of goodness and being, we must affirm that if men and masculinity actually exist, then they are good. Prior to outlining what masculinity is then we must not only that the sexual difference is real, but …

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In the Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas answers the question of ‘whether goodness differs from being?’ with the following:

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Nothing can cause an analytic mind like mine to have a greater headache then to read academic literature in so-called ‘gender studies.’ If I were to boil it down for the average reader here’s the summary: contemporary gender studies does not believe in the sexual binary of male-female, but still devotes itself to the study of what is consider ‘masculine…

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Probably wouldn't believe me if I told you
Pieces of myself that I should never lose
All these people that love you don't know you
How am I supposed to move?

• Drake, ‘IMY2’, Certified Lover Boy

When we last left our hero, he had fallen in love with Delilah, while tragically not knowing that her love was for money. But while our next scene is perhaps the most …

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It can be instructive sometimes to learn new words, so here is a fancy-five-dollar word for your next dinner party- ultracrepidarianism- that is forming the habit of giving opinions and advice on matters outside of one’s own knowledge and expertise. Or in simpler terms, one should ‘Stay in your lane.’ Now, it would be quite ultracrepidarian of me to off…

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