Rob's Thoughts

in 1999 Leon Poddles wrote an insightful work about the feminization of the Church.  His main premise was that in the west the Church has become increasingly unattractive to men, and he sought to explain why this is and what can be done about it.

“After documenting the highly feminized state of Western Christianity, Dr. Podles identifies the masculine traits that once characterized the Christian life but are now commonly considered incompatible with it. In an original and challenging account, he traces this feminization to three contemporaneous medieval sources: the writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the rise of scholasticism, and the expansion of female monasticism. He contends that though masculinity has been marginalized within Christianity, it cannot be expunged from human society. If detached from Christianity, it reappears as a substitute religion, with unwholesome and even horrific consequences. The church, too, is diminished by its emasculation. Its spirituality becomes individualistic and erotic, tending toward universalism and quietism. In his concluding assessment of the future of men in the church, Dr. Podles examines three aspects of Christianity-initiation, struggle, and fraternal love-through which its virility might be restored.

In the otherwise stale and overworked field of “gender studies,” The Church Impotent is the only book to confront the lopsidedly feminine cast of modern Christianity with a profound analysis of its historical and sociological roots. Dr. Podles presents the fruit of his meticulous scholarship in a lucid and readable style thoroughly accessible to the non-specialist.”  (The Amazon Product Description)

After this work came the best selling response to Poddles’ call for reaching the masculine population: Wild at Heart by John Eldridge.  While Eldridge largely missed the theological boat and misleads men to a dangerous non-biblical understanding of masculinity his work was still important in seeking to address the issue, and for the discerning reader will prove to be an minimum an entertaining and slightly helpful read.   A better more recent effort by Mark Chansky called Manly Dominion put’s forth a lucid practical theology on manhood that deserves a fair read by all.  The problem is that men don’t read.  And when they do if it’s not mind-candy they put it down before they get to chapter 2.  And Chansky’s book isn’t exactly man-mindcandy.

Here’s a call to anyone who thinks they might have the ability to write a book that men will read about what it means to be a real man.  Here’s what I think the criteria is (in no particular order):

1.  It needs to be short enough to not turn to drudgery for the average guy working 10 hours a day.  (Or if not short, entertaining enough to keep the attention.)  Better yet: both.

2.  It needs to begin with the premise that God’s word puts forth sin as the number 1 problem facing men today: (the fatal flaw with Eldridge is that he didn’t do this.)

3.  It needs to be gritty dealing with issues like pornography, prostitution, faithfulness, and the consequences of not spending time with your children (Like your daughter ends up the object of pornography and prostitution) .

4.  It needs to be practical – (Eldridge’s practicality tells us that real men run through the woods… naked – we need something a little more helpful to men’s lives than this.)

5.  It needs to be biblical.  I mean really biblical (not proof text biblical).  It must take in the larger theological context of order in creation, Christ’s manhood, and God’s Fatherliness.

6.  It needs to explain how men can be men and still be called to be part of the bride of christ – a thoroughly effeminate  idea on the surface – but a thoroughly masculine idea if understood within the larger context of biblical manhood.

7.  It needs to explain the sociological consequences of an effeminate church (something Poddles has done very well).

8.  It needs to be thoroughly God-Centered.  I know this is a buzz-word, what I mean is that it must help men to see that God is big, and great, and his design for men is nothing short of fantastic.

9.  It needs to appeal to more than just married men with kids.

Any Takers?