The Promise Keepers Canada and Christian Relational Masculinities

This article addresses two questions regarding the Christian men’s organization Promise Keepers Canada (PKC). First, why is it that despite Canada’s geographical and cultural proximity to the United States, the PKC has not followed the same historical trajectory and elicited similarly negative responses as its American counterpart? Second, is there something particular about Canadian experiences of masculinities that accounts for the differences? The article uses the concept of “culture wars” as one of the keys to explaining the differences in public reception. The article also demonstrates that PKC participates within a largely intersubjective tradition of masculine identity formation that is particular to Canada. While acknowledging that the discourse of relationality has resulted in a more interdependent or inter-subjective notion of religious hegemonic masculinities in the Canadian context, the article also notes the limits of this discourse.