Most of us realize that we live in a post-modern era, in which there has been a great reaction to enlightenment thinking, with its focus on rational thought.  Knowledge is valued for being descriptive and instrumental.  It is valued for giving  information or filling a utilitarian purpose.  But today “the grand rational narratives” are viewed as inadequate because we have lost the language of the soul in the process.  Today there is a cry for personal and participatory knowledge.  There is a sense that we have lost our souls.  Men are asking, “there must be more to who I am then just being a thinking person.”  Men today are discovering their “masculine soul.”  They are looking for personal, participtory knowing that is transforming for the soul.

One way to visualize the disappearance of the masculine soul is to understand the split that enlightenment thinking has produced between the mind and the heart (or soul).  There is a great need for the mind and soul to be brought back into balance.  Rational thinking needs to be balanced and complimented by the intuitive and imaginative capacities of the soul.  For men to practice the presence of God and become aware of him in every day life, they will have to regain their capacity to intuitively and imaginatively  apprehend and encounter God.  Intuition is the capacity to receive that which is from God, while our imagination is like the projector that help us to grasp what is perceived by the intuition. 

The head and heart are brought together when we come to realize that God is much bigger then our thoughts of him.  We realize that for us to see and hear that which is real but unseen, we will have to depend on the capacities of our heart.  We slowly learn this process when we slow our minds down and sink into our heart and there be still before the Lord.  While we are going inward, it is critical to remember that our faith gaze is always up and out to the our Father who is always sending his healing and affirming word to us.  Our part is to listen and learn to receive.  For some of us that will take a significant process of unlearning.