Read the subtitle and take it at face value. Behold the Man: A Catholic Vision of Male Spirituality is exactly that, and this one is Catholic all the way through rather than incidentally so. Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers wrote it, Ignatius Press published it in 2015, and it runs 296 pages. Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland wrote the foreword, a credit the old review left out.
CalledToBetter is non-denominational evangelical. We are reviewing this honestly rather than skipping it, and a Protestant reader should know what he is buying. The book is built on the sacraments, the Eucharist, and Church teaching, and Burke-Sivers is not arguing for those things so much as building on them as settled. That is more than a matter of accent. If you pick this up expecting a men’s book that happens to come from a Catholic, you will be surprised by how much of the framework you do not share.
None of which makes it a bad book. It makes it a book with an address.
Who wrote it
Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers is a Notre Dame graduate with a further degree from the University of Dallas, and is widely regarded as one of the strongest Catholic preachers working, on EWTN and elsewhere. He is a serious and capable communicator, and it shows.
What it does
The claim on the cover is that this is the first comprehensive treatment of Catholic male spirituality, and the ambition is real. Burke-Sivers roots male spirituality in a covenant relationship with God and in the cross, and he deliberately refuses to reduce the subject to the two topics that usually swallow it.
That refusal is the best thing here, and it is worth naming for readers of any tradition. Most books written to Christian men are about fatherhood or about sexual purity. Both matter. But a man who is not a father, or who has that particular area under control, can finish a shelf of these books without ever being addressed as a whole person before God. Burke-Sivers writes to the man, not to the role or the problem.
His treatment of the cross as the pattern for how a man carries suffering is the strongest section, and it does not depend on agreeing with him about the sacraments.
Honest notes
The old review cited “one reader” and “another” describing how the book affected them, without naming or sourcing either. Those were not verifiable and have been removed, along with the claim that it includes reflection questions, which I could not confirm.
296 pages is substantial. This is not a quick read, and it is not a small-group study.
Who should read it
Catholic men, obviously and squarely. This is a genuinely good book for its intended reader.
Protestant men who are willing to read across the line, are secure enough in their own convictions to sort as they go, and want a treatment of manhood that is neither about diapers nor about pornography. You will disagree with parts of it. You will also find it takes you more seriously than most of what is written for you.
Skip it if you want a book that shares your framework by default, or if you are looking for something short and practical.