Michael Foster and Dominic Bnonn Tennant. It’s Good to Be a Man: A Handbook for Godly Masculinity. Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2021. Reviewed by Joel Ellis, January 2022.
The authors of It’s Good to Be a Man have not attempted “to create a timeless work but a timely one” (225). What they have written is a concise and accessible manifesto propounding a biblical alternative to the secular manosphere and the red pill response to feminism in the broader culture. “Every boy is born a male--but manhood is something into which he must mature” (107). This requires teaching men who they are as image-bearers of God, made for dominion (17-22), instilling a sense of the goodness of masculinity, warped though it will inevitably be in a fallen world (25-27), attaining manhood by learning sonship under the Fatherhood of God (107-125), cultivating masculine virtues of wisdom, workmanship, and strength (145-149), and pursuing mission (175-187) within a spiritual brotherhood (189-206).
Chapter one begins by laying a foundation for the authors’ discussion. “Patriarchy is inevitable,” they affirm. “Men were made to rule…. It is not a question of whether men will be ruling, but which ones and how” (1, emp. in original). Thus in a fallen world, we can expect the appearance of “an evil patriarchy: the rulership of wicked fathers, who do not represent the fatherhood of God” (5). Foster and Tennant briefly survey biblical texts in describing how this evil patriarchy targets young men by seeking to harness, pacify, and finally destroy them (7-15). The next three chapters respond to these attacks by demonstrating the creational goodness of masculinity (ch.2) and sex (ch.3) and by describing the war on sex and why the Devil hates and opposes it (ch.4). This last point may seem counterintuitive, but the authors employ biblical theology and ontology to demonstrate Satan’s “primordial strategy of turning the sexes against each other--and against God” (50).
Chapter five places the struggle within and against God’s creational order in its spiritual context, as a spiritual war regarding worship. Citing the work of Peter Jones and supporting it by referencing secular authors, Foster and Tennant argue, “Androgyny is a foundational doctrine of paganism” (59). Chapter six chronicles the war between the two humanities, those in Adam and those in Christ, that unfolds through redemptive history and how that story displays the persistent problem of “toxic sexuality.” They explain: “Toxic sexuality exists for both sexes. In both cases, it takes the form of a spiritual subversion of God’s design. So just as there really is toxic masculinity--wicked patriarchy--there is also toxic femininity” (75). Chapter seven describes the effects of this war in “The Church Effeminate.” This may be the most controversial chapter in the book for many readers, but the authors provide a helpful caution against the false dilemma, so common in churches today, between “man as trapped spirit” and “man as biological machine.” They insist, “We must reject both the pietistic neo-Gnosticism of evangelical androgyny and the mechanistic materialism of evolutionary psychology” (95-98).
The second half of the book outlines a model, drawn from Scripture, for masculinity that glorifies God and serves one’s family, church, and neighbor faithfully and effectively. Chapter eight describes the need to learn manhood by first learning sonship. Many men will not receive this mentoring from their biological father, but every believer has such a relationship with their heavenly Father. Chapters nine and ten discuss the masculine virtues of wisdom, workmanship, and strength which every godly man ought to cultivate and employ in his social responsibilities. Chapter eleven cautions men against the “red pill rage” which has developed as a secular (and ungodly) response to feminism and the madness regarding gender in western culture. Instead, godly men will find strength to be faithful and to endure in submitting to Christ and focusing their strength on the missio Dei. Chapter twelve unpacks that mission in more personal and individual terms, helping men to understand how to serve God where he has called them. Chapter thirteen describes the necessity of brotherhood, and chapter fourteen concludes the book with a discussion on “The Excellence of Marriage.”
Foster and Tennant finish the book by stating: “Our goal has been to give every man a place to start. Whether you are single, married, or divorced, young or old, wealthy or broke, driven or listless, starting out or starting again, you have to start somewhere--and that is with being a man” (226, emp. in original). The book is a call to action, to faithfulness, to obedience and submission to God by taking responsibility and exercising leadership and rule in God-honoring ways. No doubt, many will find the title and contents provocative, but the substance of the book is biblical, accessible, and ought to be largely unobjectionable to those who look to Scripture for authoritative guidance in matters of gender and gender roles. This volume can be a helpful resource for discipling men, especially young men, and helping to offset the hostility toward masculinity which they are exposed to in our current social context. --JME
