Great Reminder of Masculinity

Wild at Heart by John Eldredge was updated this year after its original release in 2001. I read this book after hearing several people talk about it, and after seeing it often on “recommended reading” lists for men.

The book’s premise is very easy to discern. Eldredge puts forward the idea that most men have forgotten what it means to really be masculine. He is of the belief that men need adventure in their life, and that danger is a real part of what men are about. While he doesn’t “press” the point about danger, he does continually come back to the idea of adventure.

Men need to know they can overcome and conquer. With a spiritual emphasis, the author puts this point forward often. He points the reader to the idea that God often shows us an “adventurous” side in Scripture, and that women, by and large, are looking for men who are willing to be who God created them to be.

One of the constants that Eldredge comes back to for our modern society is how pornography is taking men away from adventure. There is no heroism found in porn. In nearly every chapter, the author reminds the reader of how selfish pornography is and how it only requires the man to take;  never to give. In our world, this is a needed message.

If there was anything in the book that I found difficult, it is the lack of footnotes or endnotes. There are none, yet Eldredge quotes from many sources. I know the focus of this book is not to be a research manual, but there were several quotations I found helpful, and would like to know where to find them to read them in their broader context.

Considering that our society is trying to devalue men, and even teach them to remove their masculinity, this is a must-read. There will be sections with which the reader disagrees, but you will be challenged on nearly every page to be a real man as God designed you to be.

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I reviewed this book in exchange for a free copy, furnished by Booksneeze.com.