Conquering Fear: Living Boldly in an Uncertain World

Watching certain television channels these days makes me wonder how people can get through the day. What will end your world? Global warming? An asteroid? A mega-tsunami? An uncontrollable virus? Sheesh! Well, in this interesting book, Rabbi Harold S. Kushner (the author of the excellent When Bad Things Happen to Good People) discusses fear and how to transcend it. He doesn't try to get his reader to ignore fears, or the subjects of them. Instead, his focus is how to live with them and live boldly! I found this to be a very interesting and down-to-earth book on conquering fear, one with excellent advice that is very easy to grasp and put into operation. I highly recommend it!

Humans are the only animals that fear the future-a consequence of the gift of foresight. Harold Kushner, best known as the author of WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE, takes on fear in this quick but thoughtful book. The essence of CONQUERING FEAR can be found in words Rabbi Kushner shared with an ill congregant: "God's job is not to make sick people healthy. That's the doctor's job. God's job is to make sick people brave." (18) The book reminds us that while bad things may lie ahead, being crippled by fear in the present will only make them worse. Indeed, throughout the book Kushner reminds us that God himself repeatedly urges people not to be afraid. Kushner's deity is not about fire and brimstone but overcoming fear. The book includes chapters on some of the things that Americans fear most these days: terrorism, natural disasters, unemployment, lovelessness, aging, and finally the ultimate terror: death. While CONQUERING FEAR will be a good read for any age group, it is profoundly an older man's book, as Kushner writes about aging and death with a purpose that a younger author, no matter how empathetic, couldn't achieve. What he has to say is both comforting and inspiring. In a nutshell, it is that "Your life is the story; death is only punctuation." (157) Those words aren't just a balm for the ailing; they are a summons to life for the healthy. Speaking of this being an old man's book tempered by his life's experience, I was particularly taken by Kushner's meditation on Ecclesiastes. As a young man, he loved it because it spoke to the hypocrisy he saw everywhere. At thirty-five, he read it as the musings of a man worried that everything he'd worked for would disappear. At fifty, after his father's death, he understood the book as an old man's fear of death: he's not worried that his work will be gone, but that he will be gone. It's this kind of nuanced analysis that makes CONQUERING FEAR such a good read. It feels like the distillation of decades of serious thought about human struggle. At a time when fear surrounds us, this book will both sooth and stir you.

Harold S. Kushner has done it again. He has produced another classic. This is a gem of a book. Packed with accessible wisdom with a spiritual flavor, 'Conquering Fear' speaks to the universal worries that can either immobilize us or make us highly neurotic. We learn that we have better choices to deal with the struggles and lack of control we must face on a daily basis. We learn how to live our lives well rather than be consumed with fear and anxiety. Highly recommended!

Harold Kushner writes a wonderful book in dealing with uncertainty and what happens after the unfortunate events of life happen. We have choices in how to handle difficult situations we are not powerless. Harold Kushner writes this book from a religious perspective, where clearly God gives us the strength to deal with the aftermath of the loss of loved ones, natural disaters, aging, and so much more. I found the message of hope throughout the book to be extremely uplifting. He discusses several difficult areas of life such as not to be afraid, terrorism, natural disaster, rapid change, hummanity itself will destory itself, the loss of love and jobs, aging, and death. All of these areas are critical areas where in life we may feel fear and not be able to comprehend the magnitude of the impact of these tragedies upon our lives. Again, his clear message of hope and that we will be given the strength to grow from these experiences is a message so many people need to hear. My favorite quote of his book is, "People have been hit by calamities, who may have lost family members, homes, irreplaceable possessions, are not simply victims. In many cases, they are heroes, people who have shown resourcefulness, resilience, sourage, and the determination to rebuild what Nature destoyed." This message alone is worth reading this book, but that is only a couple of lines, there is so much more inside the cover of this book.

Rabbi Kushner offers encouragement to all who suffer fear and dread, and he addresses various types of fears; not phobias, but anxieties common to the human condition. His objective is to achieve mastery over (not the absence of) fear. He states, "Our goal should be to recognize legitimate fears, dismiss exaggerated fears, and not let fear keep us from doing the things we yearn to do." Naturally he encourages spiritual resources, and especially prayer--not to seek removal of things we fear, but to ask God to be present, so that we may be less alone as we face our fears. We can then be happy in an unsafe world. "Fearful people cannot be happy." We may even find that we hurt less by resting in God's care. Topics include: terrorism, ageing, rejection, job-loss, natural disasters, end-of-the-world anxiety, change, failure, and fear of death. He points out how God does not explain why life hurts (there is much we cannot grasp about God's ways); instead He challenges us to respond with hope and rebuild our lives. I found this an engaging, encouraging book. While I didn't agree with every point, I felt enriched by Rabbi Kushner's wise insight, born of experience.