Never have I been both so fascinated and disturbed by a book as I was by Pilgrim’s Wilderness, by Tom Kizzia.

I’ve categorized it as a biography in my library, but it is less the story of a life than it is the story of a crime.

Pilgrim’s Wilderness is the story of Robert Hale, also known as Papa Pilgrim, and his family as they traveled into the wild reaches of Alaska and settled away from society in the middle of a National Park.

Pilgrim’s past is jumbled. He was raised in Texas, married his teenage sweetheart, but her death just a few weeks later left him devastated, and the world confused. There are several interesting connections to the Kennedy assassination, and Pilgrim continued to have trouble almost everywhere he settled.

Eventually he married again, and began a family. He isolated himself in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of New Mexico, where his family began to grow. By the time of the events in Alaska, he would have 15 children, ranging in age from 29 to 2.

Neighbors began to suspect Pilgrim of several inconsistencies. He claimed to be very religious, but items began to disappear from the neighbors ranches. Fences were cut. The children were bruised and neglected. But he was evasive, and had an answer for everything. However, it soon became clear that it was time to move on.

Several years ago, I read Eric Metaxas’ biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I absolutely loved that book. It introduced me to the details of the life of one of my favorite authors and theologians.

So when Charles Marsh’s biography, Strange Glory: A Life Of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was released, I was excited to read it, to see what else I could add to my knowledge of Bonhoeffer’s life and times.

Right off the bat, I noticed that Metaxas and Marsh examined Bonhoeffer’s life differently. Where Metaxas looked at the events and circumstances of his life, Marsh dug into the theological and philosophical aspects of Bonhoeffer’s thinking. There were several interesting insights that I gathered from this different perspective.

But that’s the only positive I took from this biography. The more I read it, the more I sensed that Marsh wrote, imposing his twenty-first century views and thoughts on a life and time from nearly a hundred years ago. Marsh is unable to see Bonhoeffer in light of his own era and culture, and he interprets Bonhoeffer’s life in light of current American culture, particularly in light of Bonhoeffer’s sexuality.

Though Marsh never come out and explicitly states that Bonhoeffer experienced same sex attraction, he implies heavily that Dietrich Bonhoeffer was romantically in love with his friend, Eberhard Bethge.

This idea is absolutely ridiculous.

The role of man has been under attack in contemporary American society. Popular media displays men as deadbeat fathers, unexplainably absent, or dull and simple-minded, at best. We seem to have lost our ability to look up to men as heroes. In fact, we seem to have lost our ability to identify manhood at all, and to see what it is that makes men great.

While 7 Men isn’t blatantly about reestablishing the role of man in modern America, this is a theme that underpins the entire book.

Author Eric Metaxas has identified seven men who’s stories define greatness: George Washington, William Wilberforce, Eric Liddell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jackie Robinson, Pope John Paul II, and Charles W. Colson. Some of those names may be familiar. Some may not. But all of them did what it took to live lives of greatness during their times. Whether that was abolishing slavery or leading a new nation to freedom, or being faithful on the mission field or establishing a prison ministry, each of these seven men displayed greatness in their lives.

Unfortunately, there isn’t enough space to go into much depth in any of these lives. However, Metaxas has written extensive biographies of two of these men; Wilberforce and Bonhoeffer. Instead, 7 Men is more a series of snapshots, showing how these men stood for their convictions, stood for their faith, and stood for God in spite of the public and popular opinion of the times.

There is much we can learn from these seven men, among others. I hope this becomes a series of books written about some of the greatest men the world has known.

I definitely encourage you to grab a copy today. But be warned; once you start reading it, you may not be able to put it down…

Question: Who do you think exhibits (or exhibited) greatness? In other words, who needs to be added to this list? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

I received this book free from Harper Collins Christian Publishing as part of their BookLook Bloggers review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.