A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Steve West
About the Author
Nancy Pearcey is a Christian intellectual who has lectured widely and has published several influential books in the areas of Christian worldview and social issues.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Why I Wrote This Book
1 “Why Can’t We Hate Men?”
2 Progressive Patriarchs
3 The Paradox of Christian Marriage
4 Pioneers and Puritans
5 Manhood in the Machine Age
6 Are Women Superior?
7 “Taming” Men
8 The Wild Child
9 Your Inner Barbarian
10 “Have We Religion for Men?”
11 Beating Up on Fathers
12 Bringing Fathers Back
13 The Power of Men
14 A Cure for Marital Cancer
Epilogue
Summary
Chapter 1: “Why Can’t We Hate Men?”
The term toxic masculinity has become an umbrella term to connote sexism, misogyny, violence, and aggression. Many hear the message that there is something intrinsically negative about masculinity. In reality, masculinity was created by God, and it is the disordering effects of sin that are the problem, not masculinity itself. In cultures around the world, there is dichotomy between how the terms “a good man” and “a real man” are defined. People can identify positive masculine traits, but to be told to be a real man often brings up negative stereotypes. Rather than accuse men of being toxic, we need to help them grow in the virtues that characterize good men who love, care, provide, protect, and sacrifice. As our society has become more secular, the secularized “real” man has become more negative; what we need is a return to the biblical definition of a good man. Honor, faithfulness, bravery, and self-control are traits that characterize biblical masculinity, but today in society—and, tragically, the church—too often men are living in shameful and sinful ways. Far too many women are assaulted and exploited. Nevertheless, even some feminists are realizing that the pendulum has swung too far, and now men and boys are being deflated in ways that are unfair and harmful. Today, girls and women outperform males in academics from kindergarten to the highest levels. Society is not giving young men the tools they need to flourish, and then they are blamed for their negative traits. Although elite men are extraordinarily successful, the average man is doing worse than before.
How can we discern which traits are created by God, and which are the products of sin? One helpful framework is to examine these things in terms of creation, fall, and redemption. In creation, God proclaims that both men and women equally bear his image. Before the fall, human beings were given the cultural mandate to fulfill, and husbands and wives were called to make their marriage their new primary relationship (i.e., it superseded clan and extended family). The fall into sin introduced disorder in relationship, and now husbands often try to dominate rather than care for their wives. There is a wider level of trait-variation within each sex than between the sexes, but there are also some important physical and psychological differences. . . .
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