This review is part of the ‘Good Books’ series we are running over the coming months highlighting wonderful books which share God’s wisdom.

Jeffrey Hemmer’s Man Up! is an excellent resource for building up biblical masculinity in the Church. If you’re looking for a how-to guide to being a man, you’ll be tempted to skip to last few chapters of the book. But Pastor Jeff wisely begins by laying a strong biblical foundation, exploring man’s creation, fall and redemption through Jesus Christ, the true God who is also true Man.

Hemmer also has his eye on the culture and points out not only the extreme caricatures found on the left and right of politics, but also the murky middle in which most men find themselves. When exploring the cultural roots of our current crisis, he refuses to put the blame on others but urges men to take full responsibility for their own failings, regardless of the circumstances, and to look to Christ for restoration.

When Hemmer finally gets around to giving advice, he delivers a truckload. He takes Adam, Jesus and our heavenly Father as prime examples of what is means to be a man, a husband and a father. He gives practical instructions too, and notes the pitfalls and the extremes, helping men to keep to the straight and narrow.

This review is the first in a series we will run over the coming months highlighting wonderful books which share God’s wisdom and the Lutheran Confessions.

We live in a culture that is deeply confused about the nature and importance of the human body. We treat our bodies therapeutically and can idolise them, but also despise or devalue them. We pour money and effort into maintaining and regulating our bodies and nervous systems, meanwhile engaging in acts that desecrate and harm them. People now experiment with their bodies to such an extent that they become almost unidentifiable, removing body parts or adding/augmenting them in pursuit of wellness and the desire to feel “right” or “whole”. Sex and procreation are at all-time lows; many people feel safer sitting in front of a screen and engaging with an AI chatbot or watching a video of a person they’ve never met on the other side of the world than they do asking someone on a date, let alone marrying them. And we are miserable. Anxiety, depression, and loneliness rates are through the roof. So how can we navigate this rapidly changing culture which both elevates and devalues the body?

In this timely book, John Kleinig turns our eyes and hearts back to Scripture to receive the truth, beauty, and goodness in God’s design for the human body. Kleinig encourages us not to curse the darkness that we see and experience in this world, but rather to be illuminated by Christ and His Word. In that sense, the book is not so much a reaction to culture as it is a foundational meditation on Scripture. Only Jesus can help us make sense of our bodies and desires. Only He can diagnose where we have gone wrong and cleanse us from the sins of our past – both those we have committed and those committed against us. Only he can show us how to flourish in and with our bodies, and to live meaningfully in this fallen world, in anticipation for the life to come.