My Brother's Keeper, by Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen
When women get together and talk turns to the topic of men, it's not uncommon for the conversation to end with someone saying, "Men!" in a certain tone of voice, while another adds, "Men are idiots!" But that judgment doesn't just come from women these days. Some men themselves seem determined to prove that human males are shallow, hormone-driven brutes. From popular-culture artifacts like The Man Show and the ads aired during breaks in football games, to the pseudo-scientific pronouncements of sociobiologists, men are confronted with the notion that to be a man is to be violent, sexually promiscuous and constantly concerned about one-upmanship.
Given this context, a book about masculinity written by a woman might seem like more bad news for men. But Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen does not bash men, nor does she label them as emotionally immature. Van Leeuwen writes from a firm conviction that all humans, male and female, are created in the image of God, created to know and love God and to live out their callings as workers for the kingdom. Her book offers an important corrective to the harmful and depressing images of men that saturate our culture, and it does so in ways that are firmly rooted in a respect for scripture and an extensive knowledge of the social-science research on men and masculinity.
A strained relationship has sometimes existed between masculinity and Christianity. Masculinity is frequently defined in terms of control (of self and others) and the protection of one's honor. Christianity requires one to give up control, and to accept dependence on another for both salvation and sanctified living. Further, Christianity is a religion of servanthood, chastity and gentleness--not exactly characteristics that leap to mind when defining manhood. Is Christianity, then, a feminizing religion, as some writers have argued, and thus inherently problematic for men? Can men become fully and properly masculine as Christians, and if so, what does that mean for how we think about both Christianity and masculinity?
