Customer Rating: 
Summary: Bought it for my husband, but I enjoyed it!
Comment: I actually got this book for my husband for Christmas, but I enjoyed Wild at Heart so much that I was interested in reading this sequel. Overall, this book is about the masculine journey as inspired by scripture and other spiritual forerunners. Ultimately, Eldredge outlines the different stages in a boy/man's life in order to live life to the fullest.
The first stage is "Boyhood" which talks of the world of wonder and exploration. The second is "The Cowboy," which begins in adolescence. In this stage, a boy is encouraged to seek adventures. The third stage is called "Warrior" and there are great examples of how "God is a Warrior because there are certian things in life worth fighting for, must be fought for. He makes a Warrior in his own image, because he intends for man to join Him in battle" (140). The next stage is "The Lover," where man is to be inspired by nature and beauty. "A Lover has been awakened by the Great Romancer. At this stage a man's relationship with God opens a new frontier. While in other realms God will remain Father, and Initiator, when the Lover begins to emerge God invites the man to become his "intimate one." This is the crucial stage. The danger for the Warrior is that life becomes defined by battle, and that is not good for the soul nor is it true to our story, for there is something deeper than battle, and that my friends, is Romance" (192). Solomon and David are great examples of this fourth stage. The fifth stage is King- "to wield power, influence, and property in his name. It is as great and noble an undertaking as it is difficult" (220). And finally, the sixth stage is "The Sage." "He knows what he speaks, for he speaks from his experience, from a vast reservoir of self-discovery."
All of these stages remind me of Shakespeare's poem "The Seven Ages of Man." I believe this is a universal theme and Eldredge puts it in great perspective. Though I thought some of the book was not applicable, maybe at times not realistic, the underlying message was good. He tends to give extreme examples of masculinity, but I think in all things, there is a good balance. This a great read for everyone, but especially fathers.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Comment: This is a great book. I got it so I can understand my husband and my sons better.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Book for raising boys and helping men
Comment: I am a wife and mother who read this book to help inspire my boys to be all that God meant them to be. I learned a lot and even as a woman, I was challenged and it helped me understand some of the stages and wounds that I experienced and why. It also really inspired my husband to be the kind of father that our boys need to grow into healthy men. The Way of the Wild Heart is very good and worth reading.
Customer Rating:
Summary: LIKE LIFE TO MY SPIRIT - AND I'M A WOMAN! A PHD IN PSYCH, EVEN
Comment: I've been going through an intensive Dark Night of the Soul, with God digging down into my heart to dredge up old wounds and expose them for healing through insight and/or submitting them to Him. Because this book is so clearly directed to men, I didn't expect to find much of use in it, but OH MY GOSH! It's THE best thing I've read during this very difficult time in my life! It is ministering directly to my deep father wounds and providing a bridge to wholeness - the words fairly leap off the page, directly into my heart. THANK you, John Eldredge.
I completely identify with the curse of having been left to myself in childhood to find my own way, teach myself, "raise" myself, learn it all on my own. And Eldredge expresses the pain of that so well in his book - the reviewer who criticized that aspect just DIDN'T GET IT. In fact, he didn't get the point in any of his criticisms. To find someone who identifies so well with how it feels to be "fatherless," is healing in itself. As a woman, "The Question" for me isn't supposed to be "Do I have what it takes?" but everything Eldredge says about feeling scared and alone and fearful of doing anything is so familiar to me. We do it anyway, I've even achieved a PhD in psychology, but with such self-doubt and pain along the way, devoid of a cheerleader. There's resentment that goes along with it, even when we feel guilty for feeling any kind of anger. And disbelief that God is really a loving Father - to ME. Huh? What does that even MEAN?? I have limped along in life and viewed with great envy and yearning the close, intimate, blissful relationships other friends have enjoyed with the heavenly Father, and just couldn't figure out how to get there myself. To know that I'm not alone is such a comfort.
To grow up fatherless and dubiously self-reliant turns us inward to greater and greater self-focus, and self-focus destroys the ability to come to God - the vulnerabilty we need in His presence, the transparency, the innocence, the security we should feel, and most of all, the TRUST. I've longed for decades to find a way to replace my natural, tremendously flawed, father image with relationship and closeness with my REAL Father, and so I'm unimagineably grateful for this bridge going in that direction!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Good Book On the Phases of a Man's Life
Comment: "The Way of the Wild Heart" by John Aldredge describes the various phases that a boy goes through as he grows up to be a man. Aldredge describes the 6 main phases and suggests how to raise a boy or man during those phases. The phases are as follows:
1. Boyhood - boy develops his sense of identity.
2. Cowboy - boy/young man develops his sense of adventure.
3. Warrior - man develops a fighting spirit (fights for the right things while not becoming a brute).
4. Lover - man learns to love others other than himself.
5. King - man learns to use his power wisely and for the benefit of others.
6. Sage - man passes along his acquired wisdom to others.
As in his other titles Aldredge uses contemporary examples to make his points. While the examples were good, I would have liked to have seen more biblical examples. Still, a good read.
Recommended.
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