Carolyn Custis James - Malestrom: Manhood Swept into the Currents of a Changing World

Women arent the only ones bombarded with conflicting and harmful messages abouttheir identities. More than ever men face an onslaught of expectations, both fromthe culture and the church, about what it means to be a real man. Through thistreacherous landscape, Carolyn Custis James proves a trustworthy guide. With hercharacteristic warmth and wisdom, she examines manhood through the lens of JesusChrist and offers a better way forward for men, a way characterized by partnership,joy, and humility. There are few writers who bring as much clarity and convictionto their work as Carolyn Custis James. This book is biblically faithful, immenselytimely, and delightfully readable. Every last page is charged with healing power.

RACHEL HELD EVANS, author of A Year of Biblical
Womanhood and Searching for Sunday

Malestrom takes a close and provocative look at the dangers of patriarchy by takinga close look at what Scripture says about it. This book will lead you to ponder thetype of person God asks all of us male and female to be. It is a good questionto meditate on.

DARRELL BOCK, Executive Director of Cultural Engagement
and Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies,
Dallas Theological Seminary

Malestrom is not of this world, just like Gods kingdom to which it bears witness.Carolyn Custis James is a modern-day Deborah, whose work serves as a prophetic challengeto all men to image Jesus. Against the backdrop of patriarchal and radical feministperspectives that degrade and discount men, James invites Adams progeny to displayprofound courage and dignity as they gain a biblical sense of their true identity.This is not a book for the faint of heart: liberated male readers will join forceswith women to conquer despair and celebrate the transformative power of Gods cruciformand unifying love.

PAUL LOUIS METZGER, Professor of Christian Theology & Theology
of Culture, Multnomah Biblical Seminary/Multnomah University

Carolyn Custis James writes with urgency, clarity, and meticulous research aboutissues that dont just concern every man, but relate to the health and stabilityof the entire church and our wider world. This is a call for men and women to livein the health and freedom of Gods calling for both genders.

ED CYZEWSKI, author of A Christian Survival Guide
and Coffeehouse Theology

Finding a crack in the door of patriarchy, which still patterns the life of boththe church and the world, Carolyn Custis James swings it wide open, redirecting thegender conversation towards its rightful focus: the malestrom. Through careful biblicalexegesis and an intersectional awareness of the actual social currents that dailysweep over men and boys, this book rightfully articulates a vision for men rootedin the imago dei particularly revealed in the life of Jesus Christ. The church isindebted for this resource for opening up a new set of questions at an accessiblelevel, and for remembering that ultimately what makes something Christian is itsability to conform image of the Son.

DREW HART, writer for Taking Jesus Seriously,
a Christian Century hosted blog and PhD candidate
at Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia

Men have indeed lost sight of who God created them to be as human beings and asmen! The signs of this reality are visible all around us. From bloody violence onan international scale to the abuse of the most vulnerable little child in the privacyof a home, from fatherless children to abusive marriages, there just seems to beno end. Malestrom does a masterful job of first articulating the catastrophic messwe are in, and then walks the reader through a journey unfolding Gods divine visionand plan for man through an engaging study of the men of the Scriptures. I simplycould not put this book down. Does it offer a final and definitive solution to theproblem that began in Genesis 3? Perhaps not. Has it begun a conversation in my mind?You bet! And this conversation is long overdue within the global church today. Atimely, well-articulated, and thought-provoking book!

ABRAHAM GEORGE, Director of International Church
Mobilization, International Justice Mission

Gods intention for the appropriate flourishing of human life has been severelythwarted by culturally captive expressions of masculinity that have oppressed bothwomen and men. Malestrom offers us a reminder from Scripture that Gods intentionfor men was not for a dysfunctional masculinity that devastates the image of Godwithin us. Thank you, Carolyn Custis James, for your historical and theological insightsthat will reshape how I live out my faith in the world. Thank you for a book thatbenefits both my son and my daughter.

SOONG-CHAN RAH, Milton B. Engebretson Professor
of Church Growth and Evangelism; author of Prophetic Lament:
A Call for Justice in Troubled Times

Unchristian patterns of culturally conditioned models of masculinity are the normfor many Christian men, with disastrous and, far too often, tragic consequences.By surveying the diverse biblical landscape with wisdom, insight, and conviction,Carolyn Custis James calls for a Christ-centered understanding of male, where menand women are equal image bearers of God, truly one flesh, and thus coworkers inthe mission of God on earth. Jamess Malestrom is a prophetic and healing voice.

PETER ENNS, Abram S. Clemens Professor of Biblical Studies,
Eastern University (St. Davids, PA); author of The Bible Tells Me So:
Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It

With wisdom and fresh imagination, Malestrom challenges business-as-usual patriarchyand calls men and women of faith to a deeper and richer Blessed Alliance. In thisinviting and absorbing book, Carolyn Custis James probes the narrative of Holy Scriptureand concludes that patriarchy is in, but not of the Bible. As I read, I began toenvision what masculinity might mean when redefined from a kingdom perspective thatinverts the social pyramid that so distorts our gendered lives. With more in mindthan just a kinder and gentler patriarchy, James opens up the Scriptures, directingthe reader through the pitfalls of traditional thinking about men, women, power,and hierarchy. As you turn pages youll meet anew people like Abraham, Judah, Barak,Boaz, Matthew, Joseph, and pivotal women of the Bible who, through Gods grace, cometo stand against the malestrom and enter into the new hope of Jesus of Nazareth.A bracing book for an embattled world; I read hungrily and came away nourished.

MATTHEW S. VOS, Covenant College, Department of Sociology

In Malestrom, Carolyn Custis James takes us by the hand and leads us through thestory of how God dismantles patriarchy in the Bible. By the time were done reading,a new space has been cleared. Men can now be men. Women can now be women. And togetherwe can live Gods gendered salvation. It is a remarkable accomplishment.

DAVID FITCH, B. R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology,
Northern Seminary

This is the book Ive been waiting for as a wife, as a mother of a son, as a womancommitted to the blessed alliance God intended between men and women. This book willbe healing and restorative for so many. Its a beautiful invitation to manhood inthe Kingdom of God.

SARAH BESSEY, author of Jesus Feminist and Out of Sorts

ZONDERVAN

Malestrom
Copyright 2015 by Carolyn Custis James

ePub Edition April 2015: ISBN 978-0-310-58625-8

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

James, Carolyn Custis, 1948 author.

Malestrom : manhood swept into the currents of a changing world / Carolyn CustisJames.