John Eldredge calls for a renewed manliness in his reader-friendly and Christian book, Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul (Nashville:  Thomas Nelson Publishers, c. 2001).

Teddy Roosevelt’s declaration nicely sums up the book’s message:  “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.  The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly . . . who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory or defeat” (p. xiii).

Deep in his heart every man, Eldredge says, longs “for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue” (p. 9). Thus men prefer football to ballet, adventure films to “chick flicks.”  They long for mountains to climb, not beachfront boardwalks to stroll.  “The masculine heart needs a place where nothing is prefabricated, modular, nonfat, zip lock, franchised, on-line, microwavable. Where there are no deadlines, cell phones, or committee meetings.  Where there is room for the soul” (p. 5). Unfortunately, for the past several decades a gender-neutral society has endeavored to emasculate men.

Worse still, from Eldredge’s viewpoint, Christianity has contributed to the problem by urging men to be “nice guys.” In fact:  “Really Nice Guys. We don’t smoke, drink, or swear; that’s what makes us men.  Now let me ask my male readers:  In all your boyhood dreams growing up, did you ever dream of becoming a Nice Guy?” (p. 7). Jesus is portrayed, all too often, as a supremely “sensitive,” compassionate caregiver.  As Dorothy Sayers discerned long ago, “the church has ‘very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah,’ making him ‘a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies’” (p. 26).

Pale curates and pious old ladies would marshal men not into armies but into small groups for sharing and caring, holding hands and baring their feelings. But, Eldredge insists:  “We don’t need accountability groups; we need fellow warriors, someone to fight alongside, someone to watch our back. . . .  The whole crisis in masculinity today has come because we no longer have a warrior culture, a place for men to learn to fight like men. We don’t need a meeting of Really Nice Guys; we need a gathering of Really Dangerous Men” (p. 175).

Men long for the camaraderie that Shakespeare’s Henry V declared at the battle of Agincourt:

"We, we happy few, we band of brothers,
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother.” (p.175)

Wild at Heart basically sets forth Eldredge’s own views, rooted in his own experiences.   But I’ve had students who’ve read and positively responded to his message. I think the book provides, a healthy antidote to the therapeutic messages so dominant in today’s educational and clerical circles.

Gerard Reed is a retired professor of history and philosophy, most recently Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. He is the author of three books--The Liberating Law; C.S. Lewis and the Bright Shadow of Holiness; C.S. Lewis Explores Vice & Virtue--as well as a variety of articles and book reviews.