Most are found in the first two chapters of the book. But there are other dimensions to his understanding of the masculine soul that I question. If that were all that Eldredge said, one could hardly find fault. I also found his discussion on the reality of spiritual warfare, the tactics of the Enemy, and how we are to combat him to be both biblical and insightful. He is right to stress the importance of a father in a young man’s life, and contends that “femininity can never bestow masculinity” (64). “This deep intimate union with Jesus and with his Father,” he rightly notes, “is the source of all our healing and all our strength” (131). Most, if not all, men need to own up to the initial wounding they received in their youth and pursue the healing that only comes through union with Christ and surrender to God’s love. isn’t made for controlling things it’s made for adventure” (205). “Too many men forsake their dreams because they aren’t willing to risk, or fear they aren’t up to the challenge, or are never told that those desires deep in their heart are good.
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One of the principal reasons they don’t is fear: deep in their souls they are terrified that it won’t be enough. He calls on men to get up off the couch and to engage their wives in the way God intended. I applaud Eldredge’s focus on the need for men to embrace their God-given strength, as well as his call for masculine courage, boldness, and the determination to pursue one’s dream. Again, the real reason men become addicted “is because that seductive beauty reaches down inside and touches your desperate hunger for validation as a man you didn’t even know you had, touches it like nothing else most men have ever experienced” (91). A man is drawn to it because “it makes him feel like a man without ever requiring a thing of him” (44). Most men live terrified that one day they will be revealed as inadequate, unable to provide and protect and defend and deliver those answers that their wives and children so desperately need.Įldredge also makes several excellent observations on the power and appeal of pornography. This fear is largely what motivates the creation of a false self, an image men project that insulates them from the danger of being exposed as incompetent. He also identifies correctly every man’s deepest fear: “to be exposed, to be found out, to be discovered as an impostor, and not really a man” (45). He points to the tragedy of lonely women, fatherless children, and so few men who will honestly engage with their families. There are other things Eldredge says with which I whole-heartedly agree. Eldredge insists that all men, without exception, long for “a battle to fight,” “an adventure to live,” and “a beauty to rescue.” The failure to recognize these features as “hardwired” into the masculine soul accounts, in large measure, for the insipid, controlled, and bored lives most men live. There are also distinctive features to females as divine image-bearers, but Eldredge’s focus is on the male. Not “woman”, note well, but “man” as a male. Those of you who have read this book already know that Eldredge identifies three features in the masculine soul that he contends are essential to “man” as God created him. The church, says Eldredge, has focused on teaching men to be “nice” and “good” and “moral”, all of which are certainly o.k., but woefully short of what true masculinity is all about. He sees, and he’s right, a bunch of bored, passive, frightened, complacent men who have no idea what it means to love God or their wives or their families. What’s at the core of masculinity? Eldredge looks at the church today and doesn’t find a satisfying answer. It’s about time someone addressed the issue of what it means to be a man. We have to move on to substance.Īs I said, there is much in this book to like.
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Would that all Christian authors could communicate as effectively as he.īut my response must not stop with issues of style. One simply cannot deny that reading this sort of writing is fun! Eldredge has a way with words and illustrations and images that make it understandable why his works are so massively popular. There is much to commend in this volume, not least of which is Eldredge’s engaging and vivid style of writing. After all, I had read with great delight and profit the book he co-authored with the late Brent Curtis, The Sacred Romance. I don’t know why it took me so long to do so. After nearly four years, countless reviews, and over one million copies in print, I picked up and read John Eldredge’s best-selling book, Wild at Heart.