In this book, James Dittes invites men to embrace and celebrate their spiritual-and decidedly masculine-way in the world.

"Dittes dares to suggest that the notable features of masculinity so often treated as unbearable faults-restlessness, drivenness, unsettledness, endless 'on duty' time-may indeed be part of manly vocation rooted inescapably in biology..... What may matter most in his fresh thinking is the grace-filled affirmation he offers whereby sacramental appreciation may displace self-hatred and sometimes savage rejection."

-Walter Brueggemann, Professor of Old Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary

"This profoundly male-affirming book breaks fresh ground with its alternatives to conventional wisdom about men. Behind men's sometimes destructive behav-iors... James Dittes finds deep spiritual sorrow and enormous spiritual hopeful-ness. His suggestive images of men as priests, pilgrims, and sons are filled with stunning psychological and theological insights."

-James B. Nelson, Professor Emeritus of Christian Ethics, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities

"Opens up new resources for male identity hidden in the most negative stereotypes of maleness. In the irreducibility of male sexual desire, Jim Dittes discerns a quasi-religious longing for ecstacy, for 'something more than ordinary experience offers; in the rigidity of male control, he finds a committed care for others. For men to become more human, they do not need to become something other than what they are-such as a vulnerable femininity or a wild warrior; they only need to modify the scripts through which they enact the spiritual sources of their own maleness.... The book is best read in the company of others, women as well as men."

-Roger A. Johnson, Professor of Christian Studies, Wellesley Co