{"id":2826,"date":"2026-11-10T13:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T17:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/?p=2826"},"modified":"2026-11-10T13:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T17:59:10","slug":"preparing-for-manhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/preparing-for-manhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing for Manhood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"594\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/cover.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2827\" srcset=\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/cover.png 594w, https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/cover-198x300.png 198w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/preparing-for-manhood.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A New Resource<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m happy to announce the release of my latest book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Preparing-Manhood-Collection-Essays-Young\/dp\/B0HQYB75M5\/\">Preparing for Manhood<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is a collection of my essays from this blog, each one selected to provide some small measure of wisdom to young men. It seeks to uproot the lies of our feminist culture and teach men their God-given authorities &amp; responsibilities&#8211;as Christians, husbands, fathers &amp; citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The volume is now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Preparing-Manhood-Collection-Essays-Young\/dp\/B0HQYB75M5\/\">available for sale on Amazon<\/a>. It is a great resource not only for young men but also for older men who want to help clear the rubble for their descendants. If you&#8217;ve enjoyed this blog and want part of it a form that&#8217;s more enduring than 1&#8217;s and 0&#8217;s, if you need a gift for a man in your life, or if you simply want to support The 96th Thesis, I&#8217;d encourage you the check it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What follows is the introduction to the book:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What has happened to manhood?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In saner cultures than our own, traditions and norms would guide most every<br>boy into becoming a man capable of governing his own pieces of society.<br>These domains might be small and personal like his home and family, or they<br>might be larger and public like a business, a church, or a government office.<br>But big or small, they would be his\u2014not in the childlike sense of \u201cI can do<br>whatever I want with it\u201d but in the sense of true ownership. He is responsible<br>for governing them; he directs them according to godly wisdom; and he takes<br>a healthy pride in what he accomplishes for God with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sadly, 21st Century Americans do not live in a sane culture. Many people\u2014<br>even self-described Christians\u2014view such masculine authority with suspicion,<br>as though it were abuse just waiting to happen. Many Americans even describe<br>masculinity itself as \u201ctoxic.\u201d So rather than raising boys to become men as God<br>designed them, we discourage them from it. Society prefers that boys become<br>inoffensive, androgynous consumers rather than patriarchs or leaders; and it<br>has organized itself accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To make matters worse, many who want to heal our emasculated culture<br>and recover a vigorous masculinity find themselves at a loss on how to get<br>there. Generational links have been broken among us, and know-how that<br>should have been passed from father to son has been lost along the way. Even<br>if we recognize that a man should aspire to patriarchy, the nuts and bolts of<br>confidently building a family and governing a household are often a black box.<br>Most of us perceive that something has gone horribly wrong in our society.<br>Many of us recognize the causes. Nevertheless, there is a wide gulf between<br>recognizing a disease and figuring out how to cure it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This lost knowledge means that if a boy today asks how to become a man,<br>no one could simply hand him the answers. There is no straightforward path<br>into a well-defined manhood marked by clear coming-of-age rituals. Instead,<br>there is trying, failing, learning from your mistakes, and trying again. Young<br>men today will have to figure much of it out as they go and rediscover what<br>has been lost so that their own sons will not need to do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But as grim as this may sound, there is still good news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, the traditions with which sane cultures are blessed did not spring<br>fully formed from Zeus\u2019 forehead. They were first built by men who, like you,<br>had to grow up without them. The work of civilizing the world around you may<br>be daunting, but we also know it is possible because it has been successfully<br>accomplished before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second, you are not alone. God has given fathers, friends, and other men to<br>assist you. Although your elders cannot simply hand you the answers, we can<br>pass on what we\u2019ve figured out so that you need not restart from square one.<br>Many of us have learned to spot the lies our culture told us. We have abandoned<br>common strategies which have proven track-records of failure. We have also<br>looked to a more successful past for inspiration in building a more successful<br>future. These may not be solutions, but they are nevertheless seeds which can,<br>with time and care, grow into good habits, good traditions, and good norms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Clearing the Rubble<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Many teachers in the churches have co-mingled the faulty norms of a failed<br>culture with the eternal Word of God. \u201cPart One: Prepare to Discern\u201d will help<br>teach Christian young men to cut through this confusion by separating the<br>two once again. Skills like identifying false teachers and recognizing the nonbiblical<br>origins of cultural norms will allow manhood to grow from the good<br>soil of God\u2019s Holy Word rather than the depleted and toxic soil of our culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the most critical areas of such confusion in our culture is how we<br>view women. Our presumption of equality\u2014that men and women are interchangeable<br>in every way that matters\u2014has proven itself toxic beyond belief.<br>The essays in Part Two are included to help prepare young men to deal with<br>women in the hopes of finding &amp; keeping a godly wife. They will cover aspects<br>of how men and women ought to relate to one-another according to God\u2019s<br>design, the nature of sex, and how to deal with the immodesty of women in<br>modern culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the blessing of marriage is not an end unto itself. The very first commands<br>God gave to men were to be fruitful and multiply and to take dominion<br>over the earth. He created woman to be a helpmeet to man in this blessed work.<br>\u201cPart Three: Prepare to Father\u201d is intended to help young men overcome the<br>absurd anti-child attitudes that surround them and recognize family as blessing<br>from God. It will also help them each understand how to serve his family<br>as its God-ordained head rather than as the slave society pressures him to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The home may be the center and beginning of a man\u2019s earthly responsibilities,<br>but his reach extends outward into the rest of the world as well. What\u2019s<br>more, here in American, each man is given limited authority to govern through<br>his votes and sometimes to seek other offices. Under the influence of modern<br>liberalism, even many churches expect a Christian man to govern as though he<br>were a pagan or atheist. \u201cPart Four: Prepare to Rule\u201d is intended to disabuse<br>us of that notion and teach young men how to carry out their governmental<br>responsibilities under Jesus Christ, their king.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But young men will not pursue these things in a vacuum. Our emasculated<br>culture will neither die quietly nor sit idly by and ignore your attempts to<br>become a godly man. It hates what you wish to become. Men who aspire to<br>godly masculinity will therefore meet resistance from the world. The final set<br>of essays will help prepare young men to push back against ungodly forces<br>in society and false teachers in our churches\u2014because they will push against<br>him. God knew what He was doing when He gave men the capacity for aggression.<br>Each of us must learn to understand when and how to use that capacity<br>to contend against evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Remember: Overcoming challenges is part of manhood in the first place.<br>Those who persevere will, by the grace of God, be stronger than those of us<br>who came before. May God, the Father in whose image all earthly fathers were<br>made, enlighten your mind and bless your path to manhood, so that, like His<br>beloved Son, you may increase wisdom and in stature and in favor before God<br>and man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A New Resource I&#8217;m happy to announce the release of my latest book, Preparing for Manhood. It is a collection of my essays from this blog, each one selected to provide some small measure of wisdom to young men. It &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/matthewcochran.net\/blog\/preparing-for-manhood\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,30,49,34,22,25,7,37,51,52],"tags":[4],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Preparing for Manhood - The 96th Thesis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Preparing for Manhood is a collection of essays selected to provide some small measure of wisdom to young men. 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