![]() ![]() ![]() The gospel of God’s grace frees you from shame and failure, but also reconciles you to your Father and adopts you into the family of God. Men need fathers and they need brothers, and if they don’t have them they’ll never become men, no matter how many examples, heroes, or men’s books you put in front of them. It pushes you to understand all that God has expected of you and accomplished for you by being both your Father and your Brother, and how those two roles are what free bastards like me from that identity and condition. It also doesn’t ask you to dig down and deliver on the manhood recipe. It brings up your objections and excuses before you can voice them, running them out into the light for you to see just how ridiculous they are before you can open yourself up to ridicule for hiding behind them. This one speaks to you like a man would, firmly but expectantly. Most men’s books do a great job showing you what manhood is supposed to look like, but they also do a great job of leaving you frustrated in one of two ditches: 1) here’s the recipe for being a man, that all you need to add to is your own personal discipline, character, and effort to accomplish, or 2) here’s the recipe for being a man, that you’ll never be because you’re broken, but that’s okay because fluffy bunnies and crying shoulders, and all is gravy grace baby. ![]() But what it did do was put the most important parts of male identity and purpose and problems together in a way that seemed addressed to the “clueless bastard” that I am. I have gotten a little burnt out on “men’s books” lately and wasn’t expecting this one to say anything that I hadn’t already heard somewhere else. I was honestly surprised by how good this was. It is a bright, flashing sign pointing men everywhere toward the headship of Christ Jesus. It’s Good to Be a Man is not a self-help book, it is not a guide to finding a wife, nor is it a guide to becoming a millionaire. Only then will your life be ripe for finding a wife. The authors emphasize that to become a man, one must first have a mission, and a brotherhood with which to conquer the mission. One of the greatest things about this book is its order. Foster and Tennant reclaim dominion, masculinity, and headship for men without devolving into women-hating, misogyny, or carelessness. The authors expertly weave Scripture, metaphor, and life-experience together to create a handbook to building a moral compass tuned toward Christ. This book should be a priority for every Christ-following man in the West. Michael Foster and Dominic Bnonn Tennant’s It’s Good to Be a Man is the Christ-centered answer to red-pill Reddit, feminists, and limp-wristed evangelicals who refute men’s godly duty to exercise dominion over creation, communities, and families. Go read your Bible, lift some weights, and get this book. But it is a systematic approach to Biblical manhood that connected a lot of dots in my own studies, after reading such other books as “No More Christian Nice Guy,” “Raising Men,” and a number of secular influences that seemed to get some things right but contrasted with the “Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild” mentality that has pervaded the modern church. It is not meant to be a steroid injection to your brain. It is not meant to be an exhaustive reference or a formulaic self-help book. And finally, it prods the reader to make realistic goals and plans and walk in the common calling that God has given to every man as they plot their own course in life. ![]() It mentions how these imbalances have affected the pursuit of marriage. It details how the wrong influences have affected and imbalanced the modern church. It contrasts varying, worldly views of gender/sex, and the natural voids that follow when deviating from our created design (and the men that try to fill them with advice from various sources from PUA’s to Joe Rogan and other secular influences often attempting to replace absent fathers). The book starts with a broad overview of what those roles are, how they were affected by the Fall, how Satan has obfuscated them, and the temptations that are common to all men. This book is is a well-written and timely study on what it means to be a man from a Biblical perspective, particularly in light of modern society’s disdain for Christian principles and the roles that God designed for men (and women) ever since He placed mankind in the Garden of Eden. ![]()
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