A couple of months ago, I watched an interview with John Eldredge and was fascinated with his book Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul. I'm kind of shocked that I had not heard of it or him before, since it was first published 25 years ago. I was given it for my birthday, so I was happy to get to read it.
It is very thought-provoking. I don’t agree with everything, but a lot of
it I find very powerful. It has
definitely seeped into my homilies recently.
It is about reclaiming masculinity.
Too many men today have become emasculated or gone the “toxic
masculinity” route. For Eldredge, it
boils down to three things: a battle to fight, an adventure to love, and a
beauty to love. These are the basics of
what makes a man.
I especially liked this book because
it is a call to action. Too many times,
as men, and even in the Church, we are called to be passive. That has caused deep wounds, and, in the case
of the Church, has made it uninteresting to too many men. I see this in the priesthood, where it has
been proven that the focus on the priesthood being “easy” has contributed to
the vocations crisis, whereas dioceses that emphasis the difficulty of the priesthood
tend to have more vocations. Men need a
challenge. A call to action. Any man who is worth a lick knows this is true. Of course, as Eldredge says, we don’t want
that to go too far to unmitigated violence.
There must be a balance, a focused energy, but one that is not afraid to
take risks.
I will say the one downfall of this
book is that in the “beauty” section it might get a little…graphic for some readers. Kind of a “clinical” graphic, but it might still
be too much for some. Aside from that, I
highly recommend this to all men, especially any going through an identity
crisis, and even for women to help “their men.”
I understand that there is a series of other books, for the woman’s
soul, for couples, which are probably good as well.
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