IN A PERFECT WORLD

In this debut self-help guide, Neal aims to teach men to relearn masculinity by tapping into their deepest selves.

The author, a software developer and former Lutheran lay minister who holds a doctorate in education from Fielding Graduate University, has designed a trilogy of books, of which this is the first, as “a strategic roadmap for men who want to become better men.” She begins by citing research and theory to explain how men have arrived in a precarious position of unchecked power within a quickly changing world, noting that in a “command-and-control reality,” the “shadow aspects of masculinity have been elevated and normalized over centuries and have become socially conditioned as appropriate male behavior.” She then points out that “These preconceived notions no longer serve men, humanity, or the planet.” Neal encourages the men to undertake a strategy to examine this situation by deepening their knowledge of themselves and their relationships, using such practices as mindfulness meditation and intentionality. One of the book’s major strengths is that it’s guided by the idea that “abstractions of race and gender are historically and profoundly distorted…men have claimed they possess God-ordained supremacy over women, animals, and the planet for thousands of years.” While offering up personal anecdotes from her own journey, such as her experience in the Evangelical Lutheran Congregational Church of America, Neal shows how one can cultivate vulnerability and transformation through a process of “conscious evolution,” which she calls “the game that aims to awaken, inform, and recall to life.” The book insightfully supports its conception of healthy, sustainable masculinity; it doesn’t seek to demonize men but rather to lift them up by challenging them to become aware of their egos and how they interact with the world. It’s a fine self-help resource for men “to incorporate other ways of being.”

An elaborate but useful resource for men seeking spiritual growth.