The Dilemma of Self-Esteem: The Cross and Christian Confidence

Low self-esteem can be a crippler. It can hinder people from achieving their potential. It can sabotage relationships and careers. It can keep even the most dedicated Christians from fufilling God's purpose for their lives. Yet many who promote positive self-esteem have ignored the reality of sin and the need for humility. Often the price paid for positive self-esteem is a dilution of the gospel. So how should Christians deal with the problem of a negative self-image? The path to the answer leads through some intrigiuing terrain. Human infants in all cultures follow a basic, primal instinct to attach emotionally to parents (or another close adult). Given a choice, infants often take love over food. Even higher forms of animal life exhibit attachment behavior. But a separation of mother and infant (perceived by the child as abandonment) may disturb this attachment, damaging the child's self-esteem. According to one psychologist, self-esteem is one way people experience degrees of security or separation. So for the Christian, once separated from God by sin, self-worth and acceptance are grounded in an attachment to God through Christ. In this important book, the McGraths take the best of recent psychological research and set it alongside a responsible Biblical approach to the subject. They point out the valid insights of modern psychology, but at the same time, they deal with the tensions between the gospel and most secular psychotherapies. Here is an in-depth, sensitive analysis of a crucial subject for the church. --- from book's back cover