Christian Self-Mastery: How to Govern Your Thoughts, Discipline Your Will, and Achieve Balance in Your Spiritual Life

This is an excellent investigation into why "we do the things we don't want to do and do not do the things we want to do". I found the book refreshingly honest and objective. Fr. Maturin gives solid practical techniques in overcoming our concupiscence balanced with encouragement and gratitude for God's gifts in each one of us.

I agree strongly with the review by Cameron B. Clark, so I won't bother going into much detail. I will add only this: I am a clerical (priesthood track) Brother with a Roman Catholic religious congregation in New Jersey. I purchased this book last year and found it so helpful to my spiritual and psychological growth that am about to order another copy for one of my brother Brothers. I will also say this. I would urge Brian K., who gave the book such a negative review to give the book another try. I know what he means by "A tenth grade level lecture on sin, with little or no help on how to deal with it." I have wasted precious time and money on such books myself in the past, and I too despise them. They are exercises in negativity, more consonent with Calvinism than Catholicism. This, however, is not such a book. Take, for example, this passage from the chapter called "Control you thoughts." "He ... who wishes to overcome any habit of evil thoughts must do so indirectly rather than directly, trying not so much not to indulge in anger as to fill the mind with loving and kindly thoughts, meeting discontent by rejoicing in the will of God, self-consciousness by wrapping himself around in the presence of God..." This is indicative of Maturin's approach throughout the book. The way to get rid of the negative is not by dwelling on it and fighting it, but simply by overwhelming it with that good which is its opposite. It is true that Maturin discusses our fallen nature, i.e., our sinfullness, especially in the first half of the book. This is only natural, as sin is with us always, causing us and those around us much grief. To avoid the topic would not only be dishonest, it would destroy the need for the rest of the book. After all, if I were not a sinner then, by definition, it would mean that I had already masterd myself, no?

This book is an abridged edition of Maturin's longer work titled "Self-Knowledge and Self-Discipline," and includes minor revisions to the original text. Maturin's book is comprised of nine chapters, each with a prescriptive title requiring action from the reader as follows: 1) Develop self-knowledge; 2) Discipline yourself; 3) Abide by the laws of the spirit; 4) Train your will; 5) Control your thoughts; 6) Strive for balance; 7) Govern your body; 8) Sacrifice the good for what is better; 9) Persevere. According to Maturin, Christian self-mastery is based on two spheres of knowledge: knowledge of God and of ourselves. "To know God is to know self" (pg. 6). He emphasizes in Chapter 1 our self-ignorance and how we can attain to self-knowledge, which he distinguished from self-analysis. We must also test our self-knowledge and learn to examine ourselves in the light of Christ. In Chapter 2, he clears up confusion regarding the nature of sin and points out that no human faculty is bad in itself but can be misdirected. "When we take these God-given powers and use them for an unworthy end, we sin" (pg. 41). We must turn our God-given powers to the good. He also states that the true principle of all Christian self-discipline is the same one that inspired Christ who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross. Discipline is a means to a glorious end, not an end in itself. Maturin also admonishes us to subdue our rebellious will. Here is where the reader must carefully study and compare chapters because throughout the remainder of the book, he attributes the will to the "law of the members" that is under the "law of habit" and the "law of sin". Chapter 3 distinguished between four laws as presented by the apostle Paul in the book of Romans: the law of the members which ties into the law of sin, and the law of the mind (the conscience) which ties into the law of the Spirit of Life that leads one to Christ. Chapter 4 introduces the law of habit and the law of perseverance. The former is tied to the body (the law of the members) whereas the latter, in the sanctification process, is tied to the soul (the law of the mind). Here it is emphasized that choosing the good grows easier with habit through perseverance. This chapter introduces the concept of character and explains how there are many forces that form it. Also, Maturin points out that one's character will last beyond this life. One critical point to remember here is what he calls the one measure of every character which is addressed by the following two-fold question: "Does the will strive after what the man believes to be right, or does it deliberately and consciously choose what he believes to be wrong?" He continues: "The answer that his life gives to these questions will enable us to form a very good estimate of his character." Although Maturin attributes the will to the law of the members, he is addressing the soul throughout the book which implies that the soul has a w