Customer Reviews

The Quest for the Male Soul: In Search of Something More

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The author uses 6 Hebrew words for "man" to make spiritual connections between the various stages of a man's life. At a time when the "institution" of a "masculine male" is popularly regarded in intellectual/spiritual circles as brutish or out-of-date, I think this book helps put the masculine back in male spirituality in a pastoral and realistic way. I found it to be a valuable tool for spiritual direction.

Having read a number of books in the area of masculine spirituality, I found Pable's book to be a bit derivative. However, it strikes me as a good introduction to the area, and very readable. The scriptural references are good, and I suspect the whole work would be helpful as a discussion and reflection guide for a men's group in a parish or retreat center setting. His extensive references to Promise Keepers at the end of the book may have unnecessarily connected it to a movement whose ideology is controversial and whose endurance is not yet known. Still, with Catholic authors in this area relatively scarce (Richard Rohr comes to mind; I believe both Patrick Arnold and John Carmody are already deceased), Pable makes a valuable contribution.

My husband has said this book has a very interesting view point and depth into what it is to be a man. Why you are a man and what all that means to "men" spiritually. The author is very intelligent, but at the same time he keeps it simple so that the reader can connect with his words.