Muscular Christianity

Muscular Mus"cu*lar, a. [Cf. F. musculaire. See {Muscle}.] 1. Of or pertaining to a muscle, or to a system of muscles; consisting of, or constituting, a muscle or muscles; as, muscular fiber. [1913 Webster]

Great muscular strength, accompanied by much awkwardness. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]

2. Performed by, or dependent on, a muscle or the muscles. ``The muscular motion.'' --Arbuthnot. [1913 Webster]

3. Well furnished with muscles; having well-developed muscles; brawny; hence, strong; powerful; vigorous; as, a muscular body or arm. [1913 Webster]

{Muscular Christian}, one who believes in a part of religious duty to maintain a healthful and vigorous physical state. --T. Hughes.

{Muscular Christianity}. (a) The practice and opinion of those Christians who believe that it is a part of religious duty to maintain a vigorous condition of the body, and who therefore approve of athletic sports and exercises as conductive to good health, good morals, and right feelings in religious matters. --T. Hughes. (b) An active, robust, and cheerful Christian life, as opposed to a meditative and gloomy one. --C. Kingsley.

{Muscular excitability} (Physiol.), that property in virtue of which a muscle shortens, when it is stimulated; irritability; contractility.

{Muscular sense} (Physiol.), muscular sensibility; the sense by which we obtain knowledge of the condition of our muscles and to what extent they are contracted, also of the position of the various parts of our bodies and the resistance offering by external objects. [1913 Webster]