I honestly didn’t know what to expect when starting this book. I’m not usually the go hike up the side of a mountain by myself kinda gal, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to really get into wild at heart...but holy cow, John Eldridge paints such a beautiful picture of the masculine heart and what its true desires and capabilities are. It awakened my desire for a more adventurous and fully engaged life! It allowed me to somewhat understand the struggles and lies that so many men deal with on the daily. Of course I couldn’t follow every single topic John discusses as so much of this book is written for the men, but it gave me a desire to ask the men in my life about those topics and to know their hearts so much better. Definitely a must read!!

I read this book because the guy I was dating at the time was reading it and loving it. I wanted to be able source the book as I refuted what he was saying about men and women (as his points and the book's points were INSANE and sexist). I have never felt so marginalized as a woman as when I read this book.

This is one of the worst Christian books I’ve read and I do not recommend it for anyone. I read it out of curiosity, knowing it’s been a popular book for Christian men for the past two decades. I was so disappointed by the hyper-masculine stereotypes, the complete misinterpretation and lack of contextulization of Scripture, the lack of ownership for sin, and the over-emphasis on individualism. There were more action movie references and out-of-context quotes from random poets and authors than there was Scripture. Sadly, the Scripture that was used was so poorly interpreted and used out of context that the book probably would have improved slightly without the butchering of Bible verses!

I wanted to give Eldredge second chances and after every chapter I hoped it would improve. But every chapter only added to the pile of poorly written, sloppy arguments that are more suited for masculine action movies than for reality. I seriously question this guy’s ability to read any text in Scripture and not take it out of context. Sometimes I found myself pondering if he wrote this book by merely finding all of the Scripture references he could that he thought could support his previous notion that men need to be wild and that God is a masculine God and then poured over Scripture finding random passages that seemed like they fit into the book.

The book was so disjointed. Most of the time he summarized dangerous adventures in movies and used that to justify his thesis that men are acting as God designed them to be and at their best only when they are allowed to fight a battle, rescue a beauty, and live an adventure. There are so many issues with his thesis, and he does such a poor job that his arguments contradict themselves frequently.

His thesis is wrong for multiple reasons. First is that not all men think like him and want to be “hyped-up masculine men who drive motorcycles and shoot guns.” God made guys different and he never once addresses the diversity between men. He lumps all men in the same category and even uses the words “aggressive” and “dangerous” as if they are positive connotations for manly men. In doing so, he ends up putting down a lot of really good things. His main qualm with the church is that it tries to domesticate men by making them have “quiet times” and Bible studies and turning them into “nice guys.” What’s wrong with a man who humbly works a simple job in a cubicle and then studies the Word in Bible studies? He puts down Scripture reading, women (because apparently all women are out to “emasculate” their little boys and husbands), and even Mister Rogers. Yes, he puts down a man who exemplified Christ is so many ways (and arguably redefined masculinity). I have serious problems with this mischaracterization of both Mister Rogers and Jesus.

Another reason his thesis is wrong is because his support for it is entirely vague. The most I could pick up on as far as practical reasons to “get the masculine heart back” was that men should go be alone in the wilderness, abandon their cubicle jobs, stop going to Bible studies, and stop being nice guys. He had bits of other vague advice like not running from danger, following your heart (which is arguably not godly advice), and asking God to “initiate” you “as a man.” If you’re a man who doesn’t like the outdoors and actually enjoys corporate America, this book is condemning for your lifestyle and choices. Sorry, you’re not manly according to John Eldredge and you’re probably disobeying God and not living out your “truly wild heart.”

His arguments are so sloppy, heretical, and black-and-white that I am shocked he’s such a best-seller. He’s convinced that every single man thinks like him, has wounds like him, and needs to hear everything he says in order to feel like a man. Has he considered that some men are comfortable in their manhood and don’t need to read a book filled with movie references to feel whole? He has serious daddy issues and it seems like half of the book is him ranting about how much pain his father’s absence caused.

Another pet peeve is that he has no works cited page, which just goes to show that the only evidence he comes up with is about a dozen action movies and his own life experiences. He placed more weight in the lessons his movies taught than in the Bible or just common sense and reason.

I’m especially upset with how proficient Eldredge is at playing the blame game. Every time he mentions his own sin (which he does maybe three times), he shifts blame into how it was really his wound from his father that caused him to blow up in anger at his wife and kids or cheating on his wife with a hot woman. He never took responsibility for his sinful nature. He even went so far as to blasphemously say that his sinful nature isn’t a problem anymore now that’s he’s a Christian. He said that because he has his “true self”, sin is not an issue. It’s like he completely misunderstands the book of Romans, which says that the struggle with sin is still real and present in our hearts.

Lastly, I’m disappointed how little gospel is present in this book. In a Christian book about masculinity, I can maybe forgive movie references and stereotypes, but I cannot forgive a complete lack of the gospel. From what I could gather from his book, John’s view of God is that God wants to be our friend, “needs us” (that’s cringeworthy), is someone who talks to us inside our head, and has the power to heal the wounds left by our earthly fathers. That’s it. The book is so heavily focused on the self, that if you took out the God references and poorly interpreted Scripture passages, you would basically have a really cheap, secular self-help book about hyper-masculine stereotypes. What about our purpose of glorifying God? Is that not a man's calling?

Honestly if you’re a man and you struggle with your masculinity, you should not read this book. Pick up a book that just preaches the gospel message and emphasizes the power of Christ, and you’ll be in a much healthier spiritual state. Or just read the Bible. Do the opposite of what Eldredge says. Go to Bible study. Live humbly, and reject your "true self" and let God replace your heart.

Do not take this man seriously. Do not read this book.

Not sharing my full thoughts on this review, but if you want them, I’ll share them with you