Presents a provocative challenge for men to discover and exercise masculine faith, expressed through Thumos - the Greek word 'courage', leading to greater power, purpose, and integrity.
This book was painful. This book should have been called "Thumos." I learned way more than what I wanted about Thumos. I was really disappointed in it. I was hoping I would take things away from this book and maybe apply them to my marriage or help encourage my husband in a Godly way. I felt like the author just complained about wussy churches the entire time and being politically correct. I may hang on to it and try to re-read it later on down the road, but right now I'm praising God I was able to finish it and that I'm done with it.
My complaint with this book is that I get this nagging feeling that he has forced scripture to fit his theology. Some of the parts are very insightful and do address the white elephant in the room of many Christians mens lives (confusing anti-conflict with turning the other cheek). If it were possible to rank different parts of the book differently I would have given the first half 3.5 stars and the second half 1. His analysis of 'thumos' and 'shadow thumos' were very eye opening.
I believe a lot of what Paul Coughlin says is right. I just wish he would make Scripture more prominent in his writings instead of relegating most of it to just end notes. I believe doing so would give him more credibility with those that disagree with his views. Good book though with some compelling ideas about Thumos which everyone has, but men have lost with the feminizing of the church.