The Biblical View of Self-Esteem, Self-Love, and Self-Image

This book evaluates the Biblical foundation of the "positive self-esteem" movement. The main premise of the position, as presented by the author, is that a person's view of self is essentially the most important thing imaginable. People need to have good feelings about themselves. If anything makes people "feel bad," such as being told they are a sinner by the Bible, then the Bible needs to change (or our understanding of the Bible). Although the books I dated in the mid-80's, the problem is still with us more than ever, thus I suppose the importance of the topic stressed by the author was quite appropriate. The initial chapter of the book is a hodge-podge survey of popular psychology literature in the 80's, showing clearly the dangerous pattern of how self became the most important word. I was especially happy to see the author resort to the Scriptures for answers about how to find their value to the Lord. He does cite many verses, and points out a lot of useful insights. But the book does lack a little Scriptural rigor. It is really meant more as an apologetic against the self-esteem movement, and it is not really designed to teach from the Scriptures the really view of self one should derive from the scriptures. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book is to see how some Christians have twisted the Scriptures to make it fit to secular man-centered theories. Some of these "Christian" authors have a very poor command of the Scriptures, and Adams should be commended for calling out their errors. This section of the book is a good reminder of the need for sound exegetical principles, and how almost anything can be made to sound palatable if you twist it enough. This is a quick read and has some helpful points, so for that reason and the treatment of Scripture-twisting I'd recommend it. But I'm still going to search for other books on the topic.

Having spent over 9 years in the field of secular psychiatry/psychology, I really appreciate Adams' writings; his focus in placing the Word of God on the level it SHOULD be placed... that of the ultimate authority.In this little book, Adams shows, from Scripture, how all our needs have been met in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ and THIS is where our identity ought to come from.

This book exposes the humanistic philsophy behind modern psychology with special emphasis on so-called modern "Christian" counseling. Dr. Adams argues that any philsophy that is "self-"centered cannot, at the same time, be God-centered. He makes a very good case for the fact that our society suffers not from low self-esteem but from high self-esteem--taking a higher view of ourselves than we ought to take.Dr. Adams spends considerable time defeating the arguement that one's basic needs must be met in order to be mentally healthy; i.e. Maslow's Theory. He contrasts Modern psychology which teaches that we must achieve "self-actualization" before we are useful for ministry with Scripture which teaches that we should "seek first His kingdom...." This book is well organized and concise; it reads very quickly. It is a must for those trying to make a case for God-centered living.

This book gives a very good presentation of the implications of an unbiblical self view. It addresses most of the major issues and provides excellent endnotes that are useful for further study. This is a must read for anyone wanting to honestly determine what the Bible says about this issue.