MANSFIELD’S BOOK OF MANLY MEN: AN UTTERLY INVIGORATING GUIDE TO BEING YOUR MOST MASCULINE SELF, STEPHEN MANSFIELD

PART I

The Manly Maxims

I should define the four maxims that frame the vision of manhood I’m urging in these pages. They are the pillars upon which every other truth in this book rests, and they give meaning to the disciplines and virtues I’m asking men to incorporate into their lives. I think they are the four pillars of true manhood, the essentials for becoming manly men.

Mansfield’s Manly Maxim #1

I believe something fairly radical: true manhood comes from doing manly deeds. It is the mastery of a body of behaviors.

Mansfield’s Manly Maxim #2

Every man has been given territory. Let’s call it a field. It might help some men to think of it as a zone. This territory is defined by what a man is responsible for. The key to powerful manhood is that a man fully owns – takes responsibility for, tends, stands guard over, assures the healthy condition of – the field assigned to him.

Mansfield’s Manly Maxim #3

The same is true with men as a whole. All it takes for a contagious manly culture to form is for one genuine man to live out genuine manhood. It creates a model, something for other men to feed upon and pattern themselves after. It also gives other genuine men a vital connection that sustains and extends who they are.

Mansfield’s Manly Maxim #4

I believe that a man’s purpose in this world is so unique, that it is meant to be one of such service and sacrifice, that he cannot fulfill his role successfully without doing so to the glory of God. There are many reasons for this.

Part II

Show Yourself a Man

While we read the brief stories of great men that follow in these pages, we never want to forget King David’s challenge. We want ultimately to arrive at the question of how we will live differently because of what we have read. Otherwise, we might be tempted to enjoy these stirring tales as entertainment without allowing them to make us better men.

Honor

Honorable men seek out the highest definition of their lives, the nobler meaning granted by heritage, by their ancestors’ dreams and their parents’ hopes. Honorable men cry out to God until curses are broken and a grander purpose is achieved. Honorable men don’t settle for lives of regret.

Legacy

The good news for us is that Churchill did not outstrip his father’s curses because he was an exceptional man. He became an exceptional man because he worked to outstrip his father’s curses. We can do the same. It is not out of our reach. It is, instead, one of the skills of living out the full meaning of manhood.

Integrity

Sometimes, though, the better part of manhood is to know what you can’t fix and to wait on the God who can. Waiting is hard. Waiting is a test. Waiting is also a way of saying, “God is God and I am not. He’ll act when he’s ready. Until then, I’m here.” It may be the greatest statement of faith we can make, particularly during times of suffering. It’s hard. That’s why it’s part of being a manly man.

Forgiveness

What kind of man endures six years of cruel captivity and yet emerges with a new and vital faith? What kind of man returns to the land of his former captivity because he is touched by the needs of the people there? What kind of man converts warring pagan tribes with kindness, miracles, and beer? The answer is a holy man, an anointed man, a man who is chosen by God. Indeed, a true man, in the highest and grandest sense.

Vision

Knowing this frees us from a trite brand of manhood that is only about the life of the body and the physical world. Instead, it teaches us that genuine manhood grows from a man’s inner life. It is born of a sense of responsibility and oriented to virtues that have the power to distinguish the life of a man from every other kind of life on earth.

Sacrifice

We have come far enough in this exploration of manhood for you to form one of the most important conclusions about your life as a man. You are called to sacrifice. There just isn’t a way to say it any more clearly. Genuine manhood, manly manhood, true manhood,is sacrifice. To do manly things, tend your field, make manly men, and live to the glory of God, in other words, to fulfill all the Manly Maxims, you have to sacrifice.

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