This is a review written on thresurgence.com by Randy Stinson.
Whenever a book written for men (notoriously known for their lack of interest in reading) sells 500,000 copies, you can be sure that it has made a clear connection. There is a lot that is right with John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart, and with his compelling style of writing it is no surprise that thousands of men all over the country have been drawn to it. Eldredge has called attention to some problems with which most men seem to intuitively resonate:
- Our culture (and even our churches) has adopted a strategy that facilitates the feminization of men.
- Masculinity, with its predilection to adventure, rowdiness, and risk has become a condition to be cured.
- Consequently, boys are in big trouble. School systems and churches have not taken the unique features of masculinity into consideration when designing curriculum or programs.
- Our culture, intent on emasculating its boys, has produced a huge sense of withdrawal and boredom from its men.
- As disconcerting as it may be to mothers everywhere, masculinity can only be imparted by masculinity. In other words, a young boy is never really sure he has become a man until another man, or group of men, tells him so.
- Sadly, many, if not most, men have abdicated this responsibility.
- Every man needs a battle for which he can live and die.
Eldredge clearly knows how to write to men and by the testimonies of many, he has achieved one of his objectives, which is to give men permission to be men. With all of the good insights Eldredge offers in this book, it is actually a little painful to mention two of what should be considered very significant problems which undermine the entire book.
