This article assesses shifting ideals of masculinity among conservative Protestants focused on the current best seller, Wild at heart, by John Eldredge (2001). First, we compare Eldredges notion of manhood as essentially heroic, dangerous, alive and free with the ideals of responsible manhood central to much Promise Keepers literature. Second, we explore the salience of this shift for men's relationships with each other, their wives and female friends. Analysis of interview data with a sample of married men and women in two churches and one para-church campus ministry highlight the active and selective reading of religious texts across gender and age. Overall, Eldredges slightly dangerous masculinity represents a re-articulation of the nineteenth century myth of the self-made man and is both a reaction against the rationalized nature of paid employment, as well as the responsible and feminized expectations of Promise Keepers' ideal of servant leadership and involved fatherhood.