Product Description

I can fix it. I don't need directions. I can figure this out on my own. These thoughts that erupt from a man's bravado, from his deep urge to be a real man. Yet underneath this, there is a louder voice countering, You can't. You're not capable. You're weak. Many men-possibly all men-face two looming questions at some point in their life. What does it mean to be a man, and am I one?

The Way of the Wild Heart reaches out to "unfinished men" trying to understand and live their role as men and fathers. Exploring six biblically based stages, John Eldredge initiates men into a new understanding and ownership of their manhood and equips them to effectively lead their sons to manhood.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59227 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780785206774
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
According to Eldredge, whose book Wild at Heart has been a fixture on the CBA and PW's monthly religion bestseller lists, Christian men have lost their way. How can the church empower its men to find that path of spiritual growth that will enable them to grow up into the image of God? Eldredge, founder and director of Ransomed Heart Ministries in Colorado Springs, Colo., attempts to answer this question in this helpful guide, a praxis-oriented follow-up volume to Wild at Heart. He begins with the observation that "God is a God of process," then identifies six stages through which men pass in their life journeys: boyhood, cowboy, warrior, lover, king and sage. Eldredge describes typical behaviors that occur in each stage, and illustrates them with examples primarily from the Bible but also from secular biographies, popular films and legends. He views the transition from one stage to another as a time when "something in us needs to be dismantled and something needs to be healed," a form of damage control that allows men to advance along Eldredge's "map." Eldredge insists that the church has not served its male population well and calls for greater insight into the masculine journey. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
John Eldredge is the founder and director of Ransomed Heart™ Ministries in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a fellowship devoted to helping people discover the heart of God. John is the author of numerous books, including Epic, Waking the Dead, Wild at Heart, and Desire, and coauthor of Captivating and The Sacred Romance. John lives in Colorado with his wife, Stasi, and their three sons, Samuel, Blaine, and Luke. He loves living in the Rocky Mountains so he can pursue his other passions, including fly-fishing, mountain climbing, and exploring the waters of the West in his canoe.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

One of the most haunting experiences I have ever had as a man took place on an early summer day in Alaska. My family and I were sea kayaking with humpback whales in the Icy Strait, and we stopped on the shore of Chichagof Island for lunch. Our guide asked us if we wanted to go for a hike into the interior of the island, to a clearing where grizzlies were known to feed. We were all over that invitation. After a twenty minute walk through a spruce forest, we came into what appeared to be a broad, open meadow about four hundred yards across. Being midday, and hot, there were no bears to be seen. "They're sleeping now, through the afternoon. They'll be back tonight," he said. "C'mere--I want to show you something."

The meadow was actually more of a bog, a low-lying jungle of brushy groundcover about two feet high, barely supported underneath by another foot of soaked moss and peat. A very difficult place to walk. Our guide led us to a trail of what seemed to be massive footprints, with a stride of about two feet between them, pressed down into the bog and making a path through it. "It's a marked trail," he said. A path created by the footprints of the bears. "This one is probably centuries old. For as long as the bears have been on this island, they've taken this path. The cubs follow their elders, putting their feet exactly where the older bears walk. That's how they learn to cross this place."

I began to walk in the marked trail, stepping into the firm, deep-worn places where bears had walked for centuries. I'm not sure how to describe the experience, but for some reason the word holy comes to mind. An ancient and fearful path through a wild and untamed place. I was following a proven way, laid down by those much stronger and far more prepared for this place than me. And though I knew I did not belong there, I was haunted by it, could have followed that path for a long, long time. It awakened some deep, ancient yearning in me.

This is a book about what it looks like to become a man, and --far more to our need--how to become a man. There is no more hazardous undertaking, this business of "becoming a man," full of dangers, counterfeits, and disasters. It is the Great Trial of every man's life, played out over time, and every male young and old finds himself in this journey. Though there are few who find their way through. Our perilous journey has been made all the more difficult because we live in a time with very little direction. A time with very few fathers to show us the way.

As men, we desperately need something like that marked trail on Chichagof Island. Not more rules, not another list of principles, not formulas. A sure path, marked by men for centuries before us. I believe we can find it.

What you are holding in your hands is, as the cover indicates, a map. It chronicles the stages of the masculine journey from boyhood to old age. This is not a book of clinical psychology, nor a manual of child development. For one, I am unqualified to write that sort of book. Further, I find them unreadable. Ponderous. Boring. What do you recall of your psychology textbook from high school or college? But I do love maps. Most men do. The pleasure of a map is that it gives you the lay of the land, and yet you still have to make choices about how you will cover the terrain before you. A map is a guide, not a formula. It offers freedom.

It does not tell you how fast to walk, though when you see the contour lines growing very close together, you know you are approaching steep terrain and will want to mend your stride. It does not tell you why the mountain is there, or how old the forest is. It tells you how to get where you are going. I am keenly aware of the book's insufficiencies. There will be those who say, "But he did not address. . . ." Fill in the blank. Moral development. Discipline. A map cannot answer all the questions a person might have. It is offered only to the traveler, who wants to know the path. Those who would take the masculine journey will gain a great deal by following the map. Those who want to analyze it will no doubt find cause to, and remain at home.

This is also a field report. It is an account of the masculine journey, offered mostly from within, from a man seeking further healing, restoration, and maturity, from a father doing his best to offer it to his sons. And so this book runs along two lines--it speaks first to men, and their journey, but it also speaks to those who are raising boys, and those who are working with men.

This book builds upon the themes of another book I wrote for men, Wild at Heart. How do I convince you that you should read Wild at Heart before you read this book? I'm not one for following directions myself. But you will get so much more out of this book having read that one, for this is a sort of sequel, a continuation of the journey, offering much more specific guidance. Those of you familiar with Wild at Heart will find many of its themes repeated here, which makes sense, for the masculine heart does not change. And, many things bear repeating, as the Scriptures testify. We are, on the whole, woefully forgetful creatures. Furthermore, many men make the mistake of thinking that clarity equals healing, that understanding equals restoration. They do not. Reading about a country doesn't mean you've been there.

A companion workbook is available to help you, and you'll experience a whole lot more of the journey if you do the workbook, too. The best approach would be to read this first, then go back through it with the workbook. Maybe get a few guys to go through it together.

A word to moms--this book will be a great help to those of you raising boys, and those of you learning to love adult sons (and their fathers). After I wrote this, Newsweek ran a cover story about "The Boy Crisis," referring specifically to the fact that boys are falling behind girls in school, and struggling. The author said, "A boy without a father figure is like an explorer without a map." It's a relief, really, to realize that you cannot be all things to your son, nor even what he most needs. He needs a father figure. You already know that, and the hope offered here is that they can be found. As for you, you get to be a woman, and his mother. You can seek out for your sons the kinds of experiences I describe here in the company of men, whether a youth group or scout troop or a man to come and fill in what is needed.

I've often wondered at the long lists found many places in the Bible that recount a roster of men as "the son of so-and-so, who was the son of so-and-so." You'll find many of these rosters in the Scriptures, and elsewhere in ancient literature. Perhaps these accounts reveal something we hadn't noticed before--a father-view of the world held by those who wrote them, shared by those who would read them. Perhaps they saw in the father-son legacy the most significant of all legacies, that to know a man's father was in great part to know the man. And then, if you step back further to have a look, you'll see that the God of the Bible is portrayed as a great Father--not primarily as mother, not merely as Creator--but as Father.

It opens a new horizon for us.

You see, the world in which we live has lost something vital, something core to understanding life and a man's place in it. For the time in which we live is, as the social prophet Alexander Mitcherlie had it, a time without a father. I mean this in two ways. First, that most men and most boys have no real father able to guide them through the jungles of the masculine journey, and they are--most of us are--unfinished and unfathered men. Or boys. Or boys in men's bodies. But there is a deeper meaning to the phrase "a time without a father." Our way of looking at the world has changed. We no longer live, either as a society or even as the church, with a father-view of the world, the view centered in the presence of a loving and strong father deeply engaged in our lives, to whom we can turn at any time for the guidance, comfort and provision we need.

And that is actually an occasion for hope. Because the life you've known as a man is not all there is. There is another way. A path laid down for centuries by men who have gone before us. A marked trail. And there is a Father ready to show us that path and help us follow it.

Customer Reviews

Men Headed this Way
Mark Twain once said, "Most men die at 27, we just bury them at 72." John Eldredge is a master at explaining this puzzling quote from Mark Twain with his newest book, The Way of the Wild Heart.

Eldredge says that in our technologically advanced/post-industrial revolution world, we have "Unfinished" or "Uninitiated" men. By this he means that we men can get spiritually stuck in an earlier stage of our development, even though we continue to mature physically. There are six stages of masculine maturity according to Eldredge, ranging from Boyhood, Cowboy/Ranger, Warrior, Lover, King, and the Sage. As a man grows, he can get wounded at one of the earlier stages, and never grow out of it, so he never fully realizes his God-given potential.

Fans of Wild at Heart will draw strength from each page, and it will be hard for a man to put this book down. Eldredge has not only grown as an author in my opinion, but this book is backed up with solid scripture that drives home his points.

This is a book that I will go back to again and again as I raise my son and have influence over those in the next generation. This is a must-read for any man, and especially those working with men.

It's time for all men to follow the Way of the Wild Heart, and raise our sons to do the same.

Our world will forever be grateful.

Wild at Heart II
Having read the first half of the book, I was starting to think it was more of an in-depth work book of 'Wild at Heart'. But then I started learning new things that made the whole book worth while reading.

It only takes one paragraph from a book like this to help a man bring parts of his life into perspective that he has been struggling with. 'Wild at Heart' did this for me and now 'The Way of the Wild Heart' has also enlightened me on certain subjects that I was not getting answers on from elsewhere.

Thank-you John Eldredge for stepping out and publishing a very personal book like this. I know your books have touched many a man's heart, and have also shown them what it takes to raise their son's to become men of God.

I would urge you to overlook the negative reviews of this book. I really don't think the negative reviewers understand what the author is trying to get across. This book is not the definite guide book to being a man, nor does the author want you to feel that way. Even though he heavily explores an important aspect of being a man, he does not leave out the other ones. In fact he does a good job of covering all the different aspects that the negative reviewers are saying he rejects!

The readers are not only shown how to implement what is shown in this book into their lives, but into their sons lives.

I would encourage all men, religious or non-religious, fathers or not, to read this book.

Biblical Imagery of Masculine Spirituality
I've read Eldredge's first book, Wild at Heart, and believe he has as good of a work here if not better. Wild at Heart is a pre-requisite to gain the most benefit from this volume. Even without having read the first title however, Eldredge here will resonate with many Christian male readers.

I simply don't understand how other reviewers can say this book is shallow on its Biblical content -- I don't believe I have seen a better analogy to the life of David in any other work. The masculine journey, according to Eldredge, begins first at boyhood, then progresses to the cowboy, then warrior, lover, king and finally sage. While the author doesn't bluntly offer chapter and verse for the ideas he shares, anyone familiar with the life of David can see clearly the parallels.

I recommend this book to all Christian men. Grandfathers, fathers, and sons alike will all find something here to inspire to walk closer to God and to develop much-needed relationships with other Christian men. This title is well-worth the price.