Masculinity, Historiography, and Uses of the Past: An Introduction

Abstract

This essay serves as an introduction to a collection of articles on masculinity in early Christianity. It considers problems of the masculine subject as both the knower and the known in traditional historiography. By juxtaposing Tertullian’s polemic against heretical women with da Vinci’s drawing of the Vitruvian man, this essay explores how to think about masculinity as a way of arranging the world and our knowledge of it and in it, using a gaze of queer patience.

Keywords:

• masculinity
• Christianity
• historiography
• Tertullian