Rating: 
Summary: Still applying concepts a month later
Review: Most books will have you thinking about it's concepts for a week or two and then the get lost in the memory banks. Rarely will you find a book that you will apply it's concepts on a regular basis.One month after first reading this book, I am still talking about it and applying the principles. It definitely changes your outlook on things. If you are a guy - this book is for you. Learn about battles, adventure and women - and get focused on your inner drive. Believe me, you will be better off because of it. As a result of this book, I am undergoing an adventure that I had completely denied for the last 12 years - and I'm loving every moment of it. Thanks for the re-focus, Mr. Eldredge, it really helped change the course of my life for the better.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic book!!!
Review: An incredible book about the core issues/drives facing guys, that's great to help guys better define themselves and their goals, and to help girls better understand us. A book that most of my friends have read and everyone has loved and re-read numerous times. Even non-Christian friends have expressed a strong interest in reading this book after I shared some of what's in it.
Rating:
Summary: Live life the way you were meant to live it!
Review: A friend recommended I read this book. I thought I wouldn't like it. I was wrong. I was overwhelmed by the emotions this book released in me. This book uncovered the personal wounds that have kept me from enjoying life at the fullest. It revealed how I received these "wounds". It explained how I can avoid passing these wounds to my sons. I see my responsibilities as a father in a whole new way. My relationship with my 5 year old has never felt stronger. My relationship with God has been accelerated. I recommend this book to any father (especially children from 3-6 years old). My wife also read this book. She has since seen her role as a mother and wife in a whole new way.
Rating: 
Summary: A Call To Your Heart?
Review: John Elderidge has some good points in this book-the best of which is that we can't look to others to validate us but only to God. The main point however, was his intent to call men to strive for more in their lives...to find their passion in life and pursue it. Makes sense...after all, we as people are only really happy when we are doing what we love, right? However, John's attempt to bring this across is mired in sexism and extremelly faulty biblical interpretation. The sexism is evident in many statements he makes throughout the book.... "It hurts a woman's heart to be told she should be efficient and independent?" "Women were created by God to be seductive?" "Women didn't make Braveheart the best selling movie of the year?" "Just remember it was a MAN who allowed himself to be nailed to the cross!" "If a neighborhood is safe it is because of men." "Men can be emasculated in their marriages....most marriages end up here?" "Sons need to be rescued by their fathers from their mothers?" "The problem with men is that we have asked them to be women?" Can't we write a book that empowers men in a Godly way without dogging women? What was that about the Proverbs 31 woman....."she girds herself with strength?" He also takes extreme poetic liscense in his interpretation of the bible (saying much much more than is written)which also shows his lack of biblical knowledge. John's lack of biblical knowledge is evident in his interpretation of the book of Ruth. He states that the story of Ruth is a story of seduction that God holds up for all women to follow. Read the book of Ruth....keep in mind the definition of seduce is: to tempt someone to wrongdoing, to persuade them to do wrong, to entice for sexual intercourse. This is what God created women to be?? Ask yourself what Boaz really saw in Ruth....its in the scripture. I say he was impressed with her integrity...(the scripture says her virtue.) John's main premise of this book is that man was created outside the garden in the wilderness, therefore men were created by God to be wild and dangerous and God declared this good. Never mind that the world wasn't wild until after the fall (the animals were all vegetarians before the fall.) And God pronounced it good before the fall. Read it youself-Genesis 1. Keep in mind that the definition of wild is: not civilized, not given to family living, self-willed, far from the mark, to live without restraint, savage, destructive. Also the definition of dangerous is: likely to cause harm, not safe, hazardous. Do you really believe this is what God created man to be? I must admit...I am completely shocked at the positive reviews on this book. Never mind the sexism....how about the perversion of God's word? My only conclusion is that the Christian community does not read their Bible....does not know God. This book greives my heart. Measure it against the word of God like God asks us to..... Many men out there will say, "but this book touches something deep inside me.....this book calls to my heart." Is it possible that it is calling your sinful nature (heart)rather than your Godly nature? Remember, John states nothing good about the church in his book for men or women. The Godly men of the Bible should call to your heart. This book is an autobiography of a man's struggle with his own identity crisis created by a father who abandoned him into alcohol and a mother who was emotionally incestuous with him (John's words...not mine)and how he has defined that problem and attempted to solve it by proving he is a man's man (he can conquer danger in the wilderness,)he has what it takes. However his attempt to answer his own problems can hardley be extrapolated unto the general public as the solution for Christian men today. This book should be read with a critical eye carefully weighing its content with real scripture. This book should not be read by anyone who does not know the bible and who is struggling with their own identity issues....it will only create further confusion. I am watching families being hurt by this book.....it cannot be from God. Remember, everything a man needs to know about being a man can be found in the bible. God should know....he created man.
Rating:
Summary: Don't give up
Review: I agree with another reviewer's comment. The first few chapters were interesting but really didn't speak to me. I'm not the out-doorsy kind of man. However, further into the book (especially the last half) I was really moved and was made to reconsider many things. I hate to use buzz words but I had a paradigm shift. I'm working to include this in our church's discipleship training courses.
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Summary: Life Giving and Life Changing
Review: I purposefully have not read any of the other reviews of this book. All I can say is that this book puts forward a very different paradigm for what it means to be a man then you will hear or read almost anywhere else (except the Bible). I know that some detractors denigrate the author for encouraging men to be uncivilized brutes, but that is not what is suggested nor encouraged here. This book takes a very counter cultural view of what it should mean to be a man and to be masculine. It gives many men the permission to be real men for the first time in their lives. Ask yourself: Do you have what it takes? Every man asks himself this question in one way or another almost every day. The answer can't be found at work, it can't be found in success, it can't be found at the feet of the woman. This is one of the fundamental tenets of this book. Masculinity bestows masculinity. That is why real men need other men. That is why real men need books like this. They are mirrors which shine light into his soul. They are how a man sees if he has "what it takes". This book, as I understand it, does not give a man permission to be an abuser, nor does it give him permission to leave his marriage for greener pastures. What it does is give him permission to be a man after the image of his creator. It encourages him to allow himself to be "dangerous". To find and fight for his beauty. To find an adventure, and most of all to live life. In so doing, he comes ALIVE. What would the world be like if Christian men abandoned the ideal of being "nice" (i.e. tame, gentle, gelded) and they simply came alive. A lot of Christian women would have a much more interesting and adventurous life. And the world would be a lot different in a good way.
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Summary: Bad Review??
Review: I've read "Wild at Heart." And I've read all the bad reviews, written by the experts on this site. I find it interesting that most all of their complaints about the book are talked about in the book. He explains why he uses movies as his illustrations, explains that he isn't into MACHO Christianity, and he explains that Christ was a real masculine man, while mainting the peace, and offering mercy to all. I find some of Eldridges thoughts to be a stretch, but isn't that the purpose of reading a book? To stretch your mind a little, and get you to think about things you wouldn't think about otherwise. I found it extremely thought provoking, and would recommend it to somebody who is intellegent to read the book, and then apply the "IDEA" behind the book to their own life. This book does not pretend to be a know-it-all how-to book. I imagane the people critizing this book are the same people who go to church's with 10-15 people in them, and their services are aimed at people born in the 1920's, and wonder why nobody responds to their version of the gospel. Can't we all be mature enough to read a book, and not expect it to be a theological disertation? I think those who can, will extremely enjoy this book.
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Summary: "Dangerous": he does not mean "trouble maker".
Review: I enjoyed this book because the author painted a picture with his theory of a common denominator for a man's heart and showed these two things:
1- That men want to feel ready and energized to face all situations just as if living in a wilderness, that we are to "feel" dangerous or preparing for danger just as if conscious of living an adventure; and
2- that a healthy growing-up is really the receiving of affirmation for our individual power. That is, the strengthening of our will power by praise or acknowledgement from our fathers - the alternative is wounding and being defeated by our fathers because they are still wounded and capable of only lashing out rather than offering loving approvals and happy guidance. The author's premise is that people in the USA do not make the social passage to adulthood successfully. Particularly that men and women arrive as adults with a wound in their heart caused by Fathers who also are wounded. The author's thesis is that the masculine heart has a need - that at the bottom of all men's hearts is a desire to live an adventure, to fight a battle and to rescue a beauty, and God made man to be dangerous, passionate, alive, and free. This slogan "dangerous, passionate, alive and free" thankfully is elaborated by the author. However, his choice of words is not a proclamation that "dangerous" is somehow a good quality in men or anyone. He does elaborate his theory to indicate that he really means "confident". I'm grateful that he qualified that to mean confident. It was his suggestion that healing of the wound could be accomplished by finding ways to learn, demonstrate and earn praise elsewhere (other than the father) that I recognized that it is through our skills and our work that we can discover happiness for some of God's gifts. He emphasized the building of confidence as a sign of health and becoming happy. Finding friends or mentors (or a father or mother) who can praise you ever inch of the way back to confidence may be necessary to heal the wound. The author used the language of metaphor rather than the language of positive thinking to make the above point about healing the wound. I'm sure all readers will find this treatment of the subject fresh and encouraging.
Rating:
Summary: I don't want to grow up
Review: This poor man is unable to act as a mature man would, an has managed to blame it on God.
Rating:
Summary: A forgiving heart
Review: First let me say that I wanted to put the book down after reading the first few chapters. For me, I saw little of value in these pages as it pertains to my life and I see that an earlier reviewer descibed it as somewhat over the top. I would agree, until I came to chapter 6: The Father's Voice. Chapters 6-9 spoke to my heart and brought to my attention the wound that has been hidden in my heart ever since my father abandoned me when I was a child. I was stopped dead in my tracks as I read this sentence on page 131 "Time has come to forgive our fathers." This is something that I never, ever considered. Although I became a Christian 5 years ago, this idea of forgiving my father for what he did to our family never entered my mind. Now I finally realize that my heart needs healing and I need to forgive my father. I recognize that the Lord's hand is at work here and that through this book, He made me aware of my hardened heart and the need to learn to truly forgive. Another reviewer lambasted the book for its sophistry but I wonder if this reviewer tossed the book aside after reading the first few chapters, as I almost did, and then wrote his review. Nevertheless, the powerful effect that chapters 6-9 alone had on me compell me to give it a 5 star rating.
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