Wild At Heart Audio : Discovering The Secret of A Man's Soul

Rating:
Summary: Solid Info Every Man Should Know
Review: I have to admit that I wasn't as fascinated with this book when I first picked it up more than three years ago. However, our church has used Wild At Heart and accompanying videos during our last two annual men's retreats. When I heard John present his message and, more importantly, saw the reaction from a group of men, I was quite impressed. John clearly reveals the God-given desires we have for adventure, risk, and rescuing the beauties in our lives. These truths opened the minds and hearts of many men in our church. For some, I could say it was even life changing. I would highly recommend this book. It leaves you with a few questions and has a few gaps but then a good book should leave you thinking and wanting more.

Gene Jennings, Author of Timely Words

Rating:
Summary: Out of 1000+ books, the only one I've read 5 times
Review: There are many things I could say about this book, much of which has already been said under other reviews. What I can say is this: out of the 1000+ books in my personal library, none except the Bible I have read five times, except Wild At Heart. I have read it and the accompanying Field Manual, been to John's weekend conference in Colorado, and taught the DVD series with a group of men. It's not a perfect book, John's diminished view of God's sovereignity is way off, but its flaws do not detract from the power of the message and how God has used this book in the life of me and my friends.

Rating:
Summary: A better book
Review: Read David Deida's "The way of the Superior Man", if you would like a true representation of what a man is all about. Granted, this is not a "Christian" book, but you can apply you're own religion to his teachings. His writing is poetic and brutally honest. Warning: he integrates man's sexual desires into his teachings, but teaches men to use that energy in a positive way. It's more of a buddhist approach, but his practices could be used for any religion.

Rating:
Summary: Search for an Active Church
Review: Man is in desperate need of a book that will allow them to express their unique abilities. This book makes an excellent effort to do just that. It emphasizes man's basic desire to be adventurous, and to have a real purpose in life. What it lacked were ideas on how to be a kind and considerate person while expressing oneself. Eldredge touched on the fact that man wants adventure, but he failed to reconcile it with the idea of compassion and the enjoyment of peace and beauty. What Christian youth need is a way to be kind and loving, while being adventurous. This book fails to reconcile those ideas.
Eldredge's ideas on church are excellent as he challenged the over-organization of church today. The idea of church with a set order of events and no real heart connection has become a huge problem today. Youth have rejected the notion of church all over the world for its stuffy environment and rules. I read an article about Eldredge in Christianity Today, that attacked him for leaving his congregation for a year. His reason for leaving was that he might come to enjoy something that for many Christians is a heartless activity that involves no emotional connection. I applaud Eldredge in his attempt to step out of the box and help Christians see that life is not all about rules. It's about having a real relationship with God, a fact far to often overlooked. Read Galatians 3:23-25 and see what you think.


Rating:
Summary: appears rather biased...don't you think?
Review: Apparently the author seems to believe that all men are strictly heterosexual too.......you really want a way to "find" yourself? Sorry guys, finding your inner beast does not require you to dance around a campfire with the talking stick while dressed in animal skins.......knock the chip off your shoulder and practice some common sense.....and that, I can assure you, is truly what's in short supply in this country right now.

Rating:
Summary: Fight for your Heart to win it back.
Review: I was born in africa and lived their for 21 years. People that have not been in the wild may struggle to identify that adventure spirit that is within themselves. For me it was no problem. Living in densely populated Amsterdam I did not realise how my heart longed for a way to express itself. To roam free and just be the way I was made.

This is a tough subject. We are taught by various sources of what it means to be a man. This is worth more that one read so buy the audio CD. And do give a copy to friends and family members (men and women).

My last recommendation is to read the "The Journey of Desire" also by John Eldredge.

Rating:
Summary: Truly scary!
Review: It's truly amazing that this kind of book finds a publisher at all after 9-11, let alone a Christian publisher. To say that women, by nature, want to be rescued and that men, by nature, want to rescue them is not Biblically grounded; it is bigoted!

Rating:
Summary: A God made in John Eldredge's image
Review: Received this book as a gift on this Christmas. Not knowing the author and what this book was about, since it has a title talks about a man's soul I finished reading this book in two days. I must warn every reader to take a grain of salt when reading this book as I found much of the saying in this book are unbiblical. As to the heart of man (an unregenerated soul that is), God declares "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). To enter the Kingdom of God, one must be born again by receiving a new heart reigned by Christ (John 3:5). Without a heart reigned by Christ, whatever one does is futile (Luke 19:27). If you want to know a heart that pleases God (not to please man, nor *self* as being promoted by "Wild at Heart"), read Dr. Martyn Llyod-Jones "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount."

The secret of a man's soul is to love God and enjoy Him forever. To spend one's life pursuing the fleshly desire such as a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue only leads one's soul to emptiness and void. Worst yet, it is a life after Satan. Bottom line - "Wild at Heart" is just another book from modern self-appointed evangelical about man's "self esteem" (Satan's old trick in Genesis 3:5). I would not recommend this book to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Some enlightening parts; some biases I didn't share
Review: I bought this book because I was intrigued that my boyfriend, who's a former pastor, really liked it. As a single mother of two boys ages 10 and 12, I particularly enjoyed some of the parts which dealt with the mindset of boys, as I agree that there is a distinct difference in boys' behavior likely being more aggressive and boistrous than girls' (a generalization- I know of exceptions). I found the chapter about the "father's wound" which is dealt particularly thought-provoking, as I worry about my sons and their estranged relationship with their father, and thought that that particular chapter was one of the best in the book. The book made me maybe a little more sensitive to men in their quest for adventure and excitement, and maybe gave a little insight into why some men go through the proverbial midlife crisis.

The negative aspects of the book are simply that it is so very biased to the author's own world-view, and even though I am female, I am not inclined to believe that all men are like the author. The author seemingly tries very hard to make the generalization that men are basically hardwired to fight battles to get beautiful women. Personally, there have been many men I have known that either have far more depth than that, or I have really been snowed. And the frequent references to Hollywood movies to convey this theme, I started to find a little annoying. Even though the author doesn't want to convey that he is defending some of the more stupid manifestations of the "macho-image", occasionally, I found myself thinking that he was doing just that, and I wasn't buying into his supposely biblical justifications for it.

But I would still recommend the book for both men and women, as it certainly is thought-provoking and bold. And even though I don't agree with all of it, the basic premise that men long to be honored for their masculine "white-knight" attributes of selfless strength and ability to protect (wife and family) is probably true. The part about men having an inherent need to take risks and conquer I think varies more from individual to individual. As other reviewers have pointed out, not all men have to go hunting and white-water rafting in order to get their "masculine fix".