What Society Forgot About "Men And Marriage"
A brief review of the book by George Gilder
To continue my recent trend of book reviews, I recently finished one that I’ve been looking forward to for a while, Men and Marriage by George Gilder. My simplest review for this one is “You should read it!”
While I don’t think anyone concerned with the issues of masculinity, marriage and career would regret reading this book, people may want a bit more information about what’s inside. It’s been a while since I’ve had the time to sit down in front of the camera, so instead of writing a review of this book, I made a video. Check it out below and be sure to subscribe to the Tectonic School YouTube channel while you are at it!
If the name George Gilder sounds familiar, I wrote another piece discussing some of the controversy surrounding the anticipated release of this book. You can read more about that here:
Do You Pass The Gilder Test?
George Gilder’s 2009 book The Israel Test posits that the character of an individual can be measured by their response to those whose success is greater than their own. It was written in response to a growing criticism of Israel at the outset of the Obama administration, a president who seemingly held contempt for any form of exceptionalism other than h…
Some criticisms that have been levied against the book by Christians are that it relies on a framework of evolutionary biology and psychology. Fifty years ago, anything poking at those idols would be dismissed as fundamentalist nonsense. But close reading shows that while Gilder supports the assumptions of evolutionists in the writing of his book, the evidence-based conclusions still support a biblical definition of marriage (a monogamous life long relationship between one man and one woman) as the ideal situation not only for individuals, but for society as well.
Since writing the book, Gilder’s Discovery Institute think tank has been the leading proponent of Intelligent Design research, headed by Stephen Meyer, who recently defended the positions of his books “Return of The God Hypothesis” and “Darwin’s Doubt” on the biggest platform in the world - The Joe Rogan Experience.
In other words, it’s safe to say that Gilder has no ulterior motives of importing Darwinism into the Christian worldview.
On a personal level, I was particularly touched reading the afterward, titled “The Faith of Fathers”. Gilder relates that much of his drive to research and develop these ideas came out of the tragic loss of his own father in World War 2, when he was only an infant. Fatherlessness, whether by death or circumstances, is the great tragedy of our time; for many young men it’s an almost certain sentence to a life of poverty, crime or obscurity. Yet Gilder was lucky enough to have other men fill the fatherly role. Luck for him was a choice for them.
It speaks to the power that all men have to influence and inspire young men who are in need of a father. Taking the opportunity to show a kid how to fix some things around his mother’s house may be a crucial step in the story of the next George Gilder.