Through the history of religions, their holy texts and norms have been sources of men’s images in societies and have presented forms of masculinity that have been expressed in religious acts. This paper examines how this reciprocal influence has shifted from the perspective of the sociology of religion and history of religion. It is the introduction to an edited volume which brings together research on religious traditions from experts in the field. The article analyses similarities and differences in the interwoven relationships between specific religions and between concepts and practices of masculinity in different societies and cultures, such as Western forms of Christianity during the last centuries, European Judaism and Arabic Islam during the Middle Ages and South Asian Buddhism and Hinduism. It is the first comparative research on a variety of religions and forms of masculinity, and thereby contributes to the growing field of interdisciplinary research on (critical) men’s studies in Religion.