God designed the soul of a MAN for adventure?

My wife received an advanced review copy of Rich Wagner's new book, The Expeditionary Man: The Adventure a Man Wants, the Leader His Family Needs. There are some helpful insights in this book that is broader than the typical "new masculinity" resources available.

Yet still packaged and assuming too much about males--and this is partly to win an audience--is the overstated idea that men are made for adventure. Adventure is well and good. It's the exclusivity that only males are made for this that is irksome and reinforces the sexist idea that this is built only into a male soul.

Today's Zondervan inspiration draws from Wagner's book. See here.

A paragraph is not enough to develop a point, I'll grant that. But the title ("God designed the soul of a man for adventure") unnecessarily reinforces the already stagnant assumption in men's literature that a woman's soul was not.

Of the verses used in the inspiration to point out this adventure, only one refers to MALES and that pertains to how men are to love in marriage. This kind of loving, however, is also assigned to FEMALES in the Scripture as members of the body of Christ rendering others more important then oneself.

Adventure is not a gendered category. It is not a male category. It is a HUMAN category. Though other books, like Wild at Heart, signify that a man is made for adventure (and a woman, in Captivating, are designed to "join a man" in adventure) that is unjustifiable. Women like adventure too (google "women adventure," here's a sample site). Living in CO, it doesn't take any effort to see women as well as men climbing mountains, kayaking rivers (see picture at top...yes, a woman), running marathons, fishing (see picture at left), and offroading--not because they want to be men but because they want to enjoy the habitat God created for humans. If you take up traveling, you'll find women backpacking, staying in hostiles, and exploring the world. You'll also find them on relief missions, bringing life to the needy.

Adventuring of a wide sort is a well versed concept in the female mind (on Wagner's model, a woman adventures by being faithful to her husband and kids, making disciples of Jesus, etc) but among those who have been told it is not 'feminine' or have some unhealthy fears. Wagner is trying to make responsibility respectable again.

He must be careful butting up against the "new masculinity" movement, for many of qualities he lists are part of the diagnosis of why the church is "feminine" in the first place. Uh oh!

When you hear people say that men were made for adventure, as a man, I ask you to kindly mention that women were made for adventure too. All this adventure talk is actually less inspiring to men as it is harmful to women and many of our smuggled in false-perceptions of women.

All that said, I do think many men need a reminder that practicing virtue is a wholly human activity and that re-deconstructing our idea of "masculinity" needs to be done (as Wagner is partly attempting to do). Loving family, taking care of kids, standing for the oppressed are all adventurous and strenuous things, often more so than scaling a Colorado 14er.

I'd like to see the church lead the way in the culture to unite both men and women under the banner of 'adventurer,' rather robbing a healthy word and tainting it with exclusive maleness. Wasn't it a joint-call to adventure when God originally told both humans to "be fruiltful and multiply and have dominion over the earth"?

The "New Masculinity" in the Church

Those of you who know me, know this is one of those areas that really get me fired up. In part because it seems church leadership is sleeping at the wheel. How we've allowed pagan and fallen views of masculinity to be the savior of the modern church is a symptom of a larger disease that the pop-culture is alive and well in the Body.

And some of it has been fueled by stronger complimentarians, who say women are subordinate to men and then invent roles and attitudes for men to show how they are superior... all in the name of the Bible.

Jonalyn and I have an article in the pipeline we want to write on the masculine problem, in part targeting Wild at Heart for its pagan roots (drawing from Carl Jung and others) which has set off a whole new Christian men's movement in the 21st century. In the meanwhile, Christianity Today published an article today that is worth your attention (A Jesus for Real Men). The article names several players in the 'new masculinity,' including pastors, writers, and organizations. And while I think these people are well-intentioned, I think they dramatically miss the point. Even my own church has been celebrating a men's fraternity, delving into the resources of books mentioned on this first page. It concerns me and I don't know what to do about it without looking like a troublemaker (which, I find, accomplishes little to the victims of the problem).

What can be done? Remember, Paul admonished the elders in Ephesus to watch for wolves (which includes people and ideas). This is part of the work of apologetics. For my part, I wonder if the elders are the ones to watch for wolves or if the ones watching for wolves are the elders (a discussion for another time)... but let's all pay attention!

Here's the article: A Jesus for Real Men by Brandon O'Brien

Comments please!!