A few years ago the Promise Keepers officially endorsed the Masculine Journey by Robert Hicks, who drawing upon writings of a secular psychologist taught that men go through six stages of life. Promise Keepers after receiving heavy fire for the Masculine Journey due to its many unbiblical teachings and for its extreme, even raw discussion of sex, among other things, reluctantly, and not without parting shots, withdrew their endorsement of Hick’s sorry book. The apparent replacement is the Four Pillars of a Man’s Heart which, drawing on another secular book (King, Warrior, Magician, Lover by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette), encourages men to develop four pillars of manhood.
I will admit that Weber’s work is a vast improvement over Hick’s. He avoids the extremes, tells interesting stories, and even uses some Scriptures (although seldom basing any of his teaching upon it). And, of course, this is the major problem with the volume, it is based upon secular psychology, common sense, fad views (he likes the masculine “fire in the belly” fad), and almost everything else except the Word. Weber would deny that accusation since he often refers to the Bible, but the fact is he has found something he wants to teach from a secular origin and he has gone to the Bible to try to proof-text his thoughts. He fails.
Four Pillars is typical for this kind of book with its reliance on psychobabble, sprinkling of C. S. Lewis quotes and distortion of Scripture to prove points derived from other sources. The book has its good moments but for the most part is a waste of time.