After years of watching the culture wars from the sidelines, a close friend recently decided to get off the bench and get in the game. As the primary method of delivering his considerable political/economic/social wisdom, he has chosen to start a new blog titled Patrikos.
Patrikos, adj
1. paternal, ancestral, handed down by or received from one’s fathers
You may recall that I’ve written previously on the epidemic of men being raised with weak or absent fathers. One of my friend’s central goals for Patrikos is to share information aimed at addressing the West’s masculinity crisis.
Men face down reality and confront it boldly. When greater truth is revealed, men learn from it and pass it on.
Blogs geared toward instructing men in the skills and knowledge that their upbringing denied them are currently experiencing a surge in popularity. Some of them focus on mundane tasks that the younger generation of men may not have learned, such as how to change a tire or shave with a straight razor. The worst promote a life of empty hedonism fueled by objectifying and commodifying women.
Patrikos seeks to rise above the crowd by finding ways to fill the intellectual and spiritual void that contemporary culture aggressively strives to impose on young men. I can personally vouch for the blog proprietor’s firm foundation is scriptural teaching.
The Epistle (letter) to the Galatians was sent by Paul to correct the church of Galatia, they were being led astray by teachers who were having them jump through the hoops of Mosaic Law instead of living freely through Jesus. One of the many interesting things about the book of Galatians is the contrast between Paul and the false teachers in Galatia. As Paul states in the verse I provided, he himself had been a zealot for the Jewish law and traditions as a younger man. He is also sure to point out elsewhere that he himself was a notorious and violent persecuter of the church, until his conversion.
It must be said that Paul’s father instructed him as well as he could, he was about as devout as a Jew could be, or can be for that matter.
All of this to say what? Paul was the man he was raised to be, but when given new information he became the man he was supposed to be. While others, with perhaps only a superficial understanding, attempted to converge the education of their youth with the adult truth.
Read the rest of his excellent exegesis here.
Let’s welcome Patrikos to the wild, wonderful Thunderdome that is the mid-culture war internet. I’m confident that with our prayers and readership, he can make a positive impact.
P.S. If you don’t care about politics and could use a break from the culture wars, I wrote two SFF books that have nothing even remotely like current politics in them.
Thank you kindly for the good word, and to think I didn't even inform you that it went live. I've learned a lot over these years, but I need to Internet better.
My pleasure. I keep my eyes open.
Excellent idea for a blog. I will be sure to bookmark it.
Glad I could point you toward it.
It is a shame how many fathers also refuse to teach their children the traits of gentleness as well. Most think the father is this "tough guy" who cracks down hard on everything and is the punisher. But men are called to show examples of gentleness to those they father.
Our prime example of masculinity is God, who showed us ultimate gentleness by forgiving us our sins.
Let's also not forget that our prime example of femininity is our Mother, Mary. And who was it that she perfectly imitated? Perfect masculinity–Christ. As we can see, perfect masculinity and perfect femininity are what makes perfect humanity.
Don't be afraid of being the societal "feminine" father I say!
That depends on what you mean by feminine? Masculinity isn't defined by superficial tells like beards and Harleys, nor is forgiveness a tell of the feminine. However men ought to be masculine, Paul warned the Corinthians in his first letter against being effeminate.
When Mary was called to carry GOD's Son, she obeyed. If God is calling us to masculine then we should. Later in the same letter he says, "Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men and be strong." so that's what I'm going to do.
It's also possible we're talk past each other.
Oh no. I think I see what you mean. St Teresa of Avila actually condemns effeminate practices amongst her nuns in "The Way of Perfection".
I think the issue might be with the Greek–
http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/lsj/#eid=66899&context=lsj&action=from-search
Malakia is contrasted with kateria and generally contrasts moral weakness with perseverance as opposed to making statements about traditionally female qualities vs masculine qualities.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm not qualified to give a masters lecture on Greek, but I'm still not sure what you're driving at. God made us male and female, our qualities are different. I do intend in the near future to define masculinity, perhaps then this misunderstanding can be cleared up.
I'm actually no Greek scholar either–that was just the lexicon information on the word. For the most part, simple definitions are easy. The hard part is with the grammar though Greek is a lot similar to previous languages I've studied such as Biblical Hebrew and Latin.
I look forward to reading your stuff. Any way, what I am trying to drive at is that male and female qualities are part of personhood. God created us male and female in his image which we are to be conformed to. Male and female are in his image.
Nonna Verna Harrison, an Eastern Orthodox patristics theologian, talks about this better in "God's Many Splendored Image".