From The Bulletin producer Clarissa Moll: When Mike Cosper told me he wanted to interview author and therapist John Eldredge about our culture’s masculinity crisis, I’ll admit, I quietly rolled my eyes. Since Eldredge’s bestseller Wild At Heart released in 2001, I’ve thought of his message as a mix of Braveheart and the therapist’s couch. 

I’m glad I got another opportunity—24 years later—to interact with Eldredge and his work. Listening to the interview, I was struck by how much men and women need Eldredge’s voice. I couldn’t see it years ago, but Eldredge is calling Christians to the only true antidote for church sexual abuse, far-right hypermasculinity, and young-male dropout: union with Christ. John doesn’t say you should be a big softy or "a man’s man." John deeply desires that each man become "God’s man" —tender to the things of God and passionate about following him.

Today, I listen to John Eldredge talk about union with Christ as the all-satisfying foundation of the good life, and I want my two teenage sons to hear these words from such a spiritual father. I think my daughters would do well to hear those words too.