The Formation of Man: The End

The Formation of Man feels like the natural place to end this trilogy, even though I never really intended to write a trilogy in the first place. The Builder’s Season started because I was building. The Desert Season came from trying to understand what happens when building turns into waiting, solitude, refinement, and discernment. By Volume III, my questions had gotten way bigger. What is man? What are we actually being formed for? Somewhere between Genesis, St. Augustine, St. John, St. Paul, Catholicism, fatherhood, work, sacrifice, love, and the million other rabbit holes I found myself going down, those questions became The Formation of Man.

That is honestly how TMC has always worked. I find something interesting, start pulling on the thread, and suddenly I am fifteen tabs deep wondering how a question about one thing somehow connects to Scripture, history, philosophy, my own life, and something I wrote six months ago. Eventually the rabbit hole gets deep enough that I have something to say. I never really sit down and decide that I need to produce a book. I become obsessed with a question until the writing starts producing one.

Looking back, the three volumes now feel like one long rabbit hole. The Builder wanted to become something. The Desert forced me to figure out what was actually worth pursuing. The Formation of Man finally asked where all of that becoming was supposed to lead. I thought I was writing a book about becoming a man, but nearly every road eventually brought me back to the same thing: love distorted, love sought, love restored, love rightly ordered, and love freely given. Somewhere along the way, three books about different seasons became a record of one man’s gradual formation through grace.

And I think that is the story I wanted to tell.

So, for once, I have no idea what comes next. Maybe I find another rabbit hole next summer and you get another book. Maybe it takes three years. I don’t want to force Volume IV simply because Volumes I—III exist. Whatever comes next has to grab me enough that I can’t leave it alone. Until that happens, you are all essentially on hold.

There will always be more to write because there will always be more life to live. But for now, the Builder built, the Desert refined, and the Formation revealed the direction.

The trilogy is finished.

The formation isn’t.

And so, we journey on.