Man of the House: Why Did I Write It? – Patheos (blog)

Im pleased to announce that my latest nonfiction book is available for preorder from my publisher. It is titled, Man of the House. And its subtitle tells a tale: A Handbook for Building a Shelter That will Last in a World That Is Falling Apart.

But it doesnt tell the whole tale.

For years I have been angered by people who have no interest in understanding premodern households, but have no hesitation condemning them as the source of so much that is wrong with the world. Their tendentious reasoning is transparent to anyone who has spent any time thinking about how the world really got to its current state. These people are not just ignorant, theyre guilty of libel. And the libel is levied in the service of bureaucracy.

The reason that these people insist that the past is full of liars and cheats is because they would like to divert your attention away from the lies we live by today.

But the house of lies we live in today is showing signs of impending collapse. Modernity is top-heavy and fragile. We all feel it in our bones. And the Humpty Dumpty economy wants us to do anything we can to keep it from fallingincluding selling our children into debt-slavery and even forcing women into corporate wage-slavery.

Ive spent a lot of time around people who think that men are evil and that the old paterfamilias was nothing more than Hitler on a small-scale. These people are fools. Worse than that, theyre guilty of patricide and theft. It is about time someone told the tale of the paterfamilias and not only what we owe to him, but how he can come roaring back.

If this is the sort of thing youd like to know more about, well, Ive got the book for you.

I dont spend much time rebuking the enemies of the paterfamilias. Thats dull, ugly work. Its necessary, but thats not what this book is about. Instead I try to show how the paterfamilias is needed more than ever and how a young man can become one.

Now, Im a pastor in the Reformed tradition. And while I believe that tradition is uniquely situated to support the paterfamilias in his work, this book is intended for a broader audience. If youre looking for straightforward presentation of what it means to be the man of the house with support from some of the best thinking found in western civilization, I think youll like what youll find here.

To conclude, here are some kind things men I respect have said about the book.

With wit and flair and a manly willingness to face the facts of life, Wiley shows us howto have areal householdrather than a chilly wayside inn, and howto help build again the real local communities that require such households for their existence. Without a recovery of manhood, it is not going to happen. Pastors, this book is for you, too.

Anthony Esolen, Providence College; author ofOut of the Ashes: Reclaiming American Culture, andReal Music: The Timeless Hymns of the Church

C. R. Wileys Man of the House is a worthy and valuable heir to the great tracts on the foundations for a good life in this world as penned by the Puritan worthies, by reformers such as Martin Luther, by the Church Fathers of the early Christian Centuries, and even by the Greek philosophers.

Allan C. Carlson, President Emeritus of The Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society; author of Family Cycles: Strength, Decline & Renewal in Domestic Life, 1630-2000.

Heres the link to my publisher: Man of the House, by C. R. Wiley

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Man of the House: Why Did I Write It? - Patheos (blog)