Customer Reviews

Mark of a Man, The: Following Christ's Example of Masculinity

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Elisabeth Elliot writes to her nephew Pete and lays out a methodical, yet insightful and personal case study of masculinity as modeled after the life of Jesus Christ. She shares many stories about her first husband, Jim Elliot, as well as other people she has counseled or known. I find her writing deep with conviction, scripturally sound and challenging. I would recommend this book to any man wanting to understand his earthly purpose and calling in the light of his relationship with Christ. It's also an excellent book for Christian women who want to understand their role as it relates to the men in their lives.

I first bought this book before I married in 1982. For 26 years I've used these truths and have had a powerful, solid marriage. It has affected our children including our six sons who are in and entering their 20s. Our sons know that God has not only made them men, but He has commanded them to be men. And as Elisabeth Elliot so clearly states his her book, our daughters realize that in order for them to be powerful women, their husbands must be powerful men.

I've bought many copies of Mark of a Man for young married and un-married men. I have seen powerless, fearful, uninitiated men become real men--and their wives, even the most ardent feminist, love it! Elisabeth Elliot is very hard on her own gender and her antidotes to the destructive feminism of a quarter century ago remain powerfully true for today. Yet, it becomes clear in the book using God's own Word to state that only when men decide to be the real, courageous, masculine men God created them to be, only then will women become free of the deceit, bondage, and weakness of feminism to become the powerful women God made them to be.

Elisabeth Elliot does talk somewhat frank about male and female sexuality (frank for that day and time). For the discussion on men, she may allude that men should never masturbate even when single. Having been a single young man and having raised and am raising six young men, we all have to masturbate as God physiologically made us. This is usually difficult for women (particularly Christian women) to understand. Our problem is not ejaculating before we are married, it is the lusting that is our problem. Read that chapter on men's sexuality as God's Holy Spirit interprets it for you (as you should the entire book as any book).

Very highly recommend this book.

Excellent book. Elisabeth Elliot's no-nonsense attitude is refreshing. I recommend this for any young man trying to find his place and Godly direction in our world of confused roles and blurred lines. It's great as a gift!

Absolute read for every single, married, divorced woman. No matter if you're single by choice, abandoment or especially if you're dating or engaged. Scripture examined under a microscope for men/women's roles from creation as God communicates He intended them to be; recreated in personal letters from aunt to nephew. Refreshing, challenging, may be earth shattering (I hope!) for the feminist revolution. God created a romantic dance, if you will, between the sexes - and men were created to take the lead. That means women have a role to learn too - neither of us can dance without the other. Buy it - think about it!

Still single but longing for a wife, I read "The Mark of a Man" just after my fortieth birthday. This book clarified and reaffirmed what I've come to believe over fifteen years of studying the Bible.

There are forty-four very short, concise, easy-to-read chapters. The first twenty chapters examine and clarify the wonderful differences God created between men and women. They focus more on what is a woman than what is a man. The last twenty-four chapters clarify God's intent for men in particular. Mrs. Elliot is Biblically sound. She is unabashedly, refreshingly, and at times humorously non-"feminist" -- while simultaneously being absolutely pro-woman and undeniably feminine. Her thoughts about gender roles may be regarded by some as old-fashioned, but in actuality, they are timeless. When men and women conduct their lives according to the principles Mrs. Elliot expounds, the world will be a more peaceful, harmonious place. This book is insightful and refreshing; a delight to read.

As a reviewer of the earlier edition said, I also wanted to write Mrs. Elliot to thank her for this excellent work. I, too, felt like she was my aunt or my grandmother who sat me down and lovingly taught me what God expects of men in their relationships with women.

I wish I had read "The Mark of a Man" when I was a teenager or in my early twenties.

I regard this to be one of the best books I have ever read. I highly recommend this book for men and women, young and old alike.

Every Christian man and every married Christian man would do his soul well, (and his wife's if he's married), to read this one! It had the right balance of challenge and encouragement. She also spelled out in practical terms what it means to be a man. Elliot strongly encourages her nephew to not cower to the culture but to "be the man" like David exhorted his son Solomon.

She gives a lot of scriptural basis for her views. I found fault with a couple of her views but the overall quality of this book greatly overshadowed them.

Although she spent a great deal of time on manhood in the context of being a husband and father, there still was some great insights for the single man.

Again, it was quite refreshing to read something that not only defended masculinity but also encouraged it and affirmed it without apology.

Elisabeth Elliot's warm, anecdotal, and deeply personal correspondence on masculinity is hard candy for the fundamentalist and a pill to swallow for the liberal-minded. Rooted in her common sense readings of Scripture and wealth of experience--she has been married thrice, widowed twice--this book presents the classic Judeo-Christian view of man as divinely-appointed initiator, protector, and house-priest vis-à-vis woman, the submissive responder and adapter. For feminists, LGBTQ people, and other readers who have adopted the going opinion that gender roles are interchangeable both sexually and functionally, Elliot's conservative viewpoint will surely offend. She makes it clear that women should be ready to drop their career goals while being carried over the threshold. She considers the purposely childless marriage a non-option. And homosexuality? Out of the question. She upholds good old-fashioned morality and manners as outgrowths of the Genesis account in which man and woman are created to be gloriously different and perfectly complementary. The Mark of a Man is not theology; it is not philosophical apology; it is not even a true correspondence. It is rather a collection of brief insights, reflections, and advice aimed especially at the young man in search of a godly wife, but also useful for the girl waiting to be pursued who in the meantime is mulling over the meaning of femininity and motherhood. The Mark of a Man is a quick read with a classic perspective.

Gave this book as a gift to a young man who wants to keep focused on God's purpose for his life.

In this book, Mrs Elliot considers the concepts of femininity and masculinity.
In page 18 she states that many married couples experience great difficulties trying to make husband and wife equal or interchangeable.
As a matter of fact, there is a vast difference between equal and interchangeable, a difference that Mrs Elliot does not seem to be aware of; as a result of this, the author gives us a biased and confused definition of femininity in a poorly written book.
Mrs Elliot's portrait of Eve (created for the man to be an adapter, a responder, under Adam's authority) perfectly fits with tradition, but not with the Bible; this distortion of the meaning of Genesis is, in my opinion, an insult to God.
In chapter 14, the author gives a sad and offensive definition of femininity; she wrote in page 54: "Her femininity is bound up not only with her having been made for the man, but also in having been made from him. Her very existence depended on his having been there first".
Mrs. Elliot wrote a similar statement on page 398 in "Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood" by Gruden and Piper. She wrote: "This is what I understand to be the essence of femininity. It means surrender. Think of a bride. She surrenders her independence, her will, her name, her destiny, herself to the bridegroom in marriage. Than, in the marriage chamber, she surrenders her body, her priceless gift of virginity, all that has been hidden".
Surrender her body? Surrender her will? Sounds like she is forced to, rather than do it with joy! I can see no love in this bitter statement.
Femininity, in my opinion, means kindness, elegance, sensibility, care, wisdom, desire of motherhood; adjectives which do not match with the word "surrender". Esther, Deborah, Ruth, Hulda, Miriam, are all biblical characters who showed great wisdom and determination rather than surrender.
Personally, I find the concept of surrendering to another person to be blasphemous: Jesus is the only One to whom we must surrender ourselves.
Furthermore, according to the Bible, a Christian marriage means love, comprehension, altruism, from BOTH, husband and wife. Consequentely, in the marriage chamber, there is no room for surrender, but a special, perfect union between husband and wife, who reciprocally give themselves, their special gift of love, to each other, becoming one flesh according to God's design.