A Critique of Humilitas by John Dickson

Summary

            Humilitas by John Dickson is not some great treatise on humility. It is a rather short work that borrows a lot from other sources, but Dickson tells you that from the onset. John Dickson is a man of many talents according to the dust jacket of the book; he is a PhD in history, he was a musician, and he is also a pastor at a church in Australia where he is from.  As stated before this is not an extremely large book it comes in under 200 pages of material.

            With his background in history it is no wonder that the majority of this book is committed to the historical background of humility and the role it has played in different societies. There is a shift not only in history, but also in the book that takes place with Christ. Before Christ most cultures were based on the shame-honor system, even things in his own Jewish community were set up that way. It is in the context of this society that Christ’s new teaching made him a radical. One aspect of the book that helped to drive home the point Dickson was attempting to make was his use of stories actually depicting acts of humility; in particular the story of Joe Louis.  In short this book can be broken up into three sections, the history of humility before Christ, after Jesus, and application.

Critique

            Dickson’s book as a whole was okay, it was not something that I was blown away by, nor was it something that felt like a complete waste of time.  Throughout the book you will find some nuggets of value such as, “One of the keys to developing humility is spending more time with friends who speak plainly.”[1] There was not much I took away from chapter one, however in the next chapter on leadership I did manage to glean more. He makes a good point in distinguishing art from science when he says, “Leadership is more of an art than a science. This is why there are as many leadership styles, books and courses as there are forms of art.”[2] He goes on to make several other important observations about leadership and how being a good performer will not make you a good leader, while a good leader always did well in some aspect of the work before becoming a leader.[3] There is one thing I was not crazy about when dealing with this chapter it felt disjointed being in a book on humility, because it seemed like it took forever to get to the topic and then covered it poorly.

            In his next chapter subtitled common sense he has a superb point that is often over looked not only in the corporate setting but in other areas such as the home and church. He says, “Humbly acknowledging limitations and refusing to engage in competency extrapolation are not signs of weakness. The demonstrate realism and are therefore strengths.”[4]  In chapter four he points out that in some cultures that humility was not a virtue, it was so ill received that on a list of over 147 virtues it did even make the list.[5] It was thought of so lowly that, “humility was the stuff of slaves, not respected rabbis.”[6]

            He makes the point about respect making a huge difference on how we receive things said by people.  For instance, “The same words my be used by both of us; the same evidence may be presented; but, somehow, the words of the trusted friend are much more compelling.”[7] Some would say that by holding to a solid set of convictions and being unwilling to yield makes us intolerant and unable to be humble. Dickson suggest, “Humility applied to convictions does not mean believing things any less; it means treating those who hold contrary beliefs with respect and friendship.”[8] In building humility we should keep examples worth following before us, “if we are shaped by what we admire, finding admirable examples and studying them will go a long way toward forming humility in us.”[9]

Evaluation

            It would be hard for  me to recommend this book to anyone, unless they were looking for a historical perspective of humility. While this book is used in class on preventing ministry failure I saw very little in this book that was an encouragement. From what I have read there is a book of similar size by C.J. Mahaney entitled Humility that would be far more appropriate on the topic. Dickson’s work is a good historical approach, but as far as practical it misses the  mark.

            I would like to have seen more of a biblical perspective on the topic of humility. He gives us a brief understanding of the humility of Christ, and it stops short. From the vantage point of a pastor or elder in the church there is not much here to take away from this book to be of any benefit to the body, it could very well be applied to the secular context and you would not be able to make any major distinguishing comments between who the intended recipients are supposed to be. Was this book written for the body of Christ or the rest of the world? While it is published by Zondervan a prominent name in Christian publishing, its listing is under business and economics proving that it is not truly set for Christian ministry or living. In  my opinion it is still miscategorized and should be under history.  So in the end I would not recommend this work for use in the body in any capacity.

Bibliography

Dickson, John. Humilitas: A lost key to life, love, and leadership. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011.

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            [1] John Dickson, Humilitas: A lost key to life, love, and leadership. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011)12.

            [2] Ibid., 34.

            [3] Ibid., 37.

            [4] Ibid., 56.

            [5] Ibid., 88-89.

            [6] Ibid., 104.

            [7] Ibid., 139.

            [8] Ibid., 167.

            [9] Ibid.,175.

Critique of Margin by Richard Swenson

Summary

            Richard A. Swenson is a medical doctor who has written several different books. This book fits into the system of books that has been written by him, it seems as though most of them focus to some degree on margin and things dealing with it. For the purpose of this critique we will be evaluating only the first ten chapters of this fifteen-chapter work. The ten chapters we are going to be evaluating fall into two separate categories that the author has established. Chapters 2-5 are in what he calls The Problem: Pain. While chapters 6-10 are The Prescription: Margin.

            None of the chapters are terribly long, each being about ten pages sometimes twenty not much more than that. Before Dr. Swenson gets too deep into the problem he starts off explaining how we go about in marginless living. You could say that marginless living is living with no room for the unexpected. Swenson defines margin in this manner, “Margin, on the other hand, is having breath left at the top of the staircase, money left at the end of the month, and sanity left at the end of adolescence.” [1]

            After defining what margin and marginlessness is, he goes on to lay out what he call the four areas of pain: progress, problems, stress, and overload.  What exactly is progress and why is it a problem? According to Swenson, “Simply stated, progress means proceeding to a higher stage of development.”[2] So, progress is technological advancement, along with advancement in other field or area you can thank of. For most people I would assume that the problems of pain and stress seem to be pretty self-explanatory. While the problem of overload may seem the same way, is not exactly the case. How does one differentiate the problems of stress from that of overload? It is not so simple to answer that question. I would guess to say that stress is our reaction to the situation while overload is not just one situation but the taking on and handling of too many different things. He responds in kind to the four areas of pain with four different prescriptions to help change the pain to healing. The areas of healing are in emotional, physical, time and finances.

Critique

            Swenson has some valuable input when we sit down and take the time to read and digest what he is saying. Progress is dangerous when it is not kept in check. Swenson says, “Before we can subjugate progress, we must first break the addiction.”[3]  This is not going to be easy because progress has crept into every area of our lives, so now vigilance is required so that progress does not gain any further ground. A great statement that he makes is found in his section on stress. I had never thought of it the way he defined it. “Stress is not the circumstance, it is our response to the circumstance.”[4] He also speaks about vacations and how they are supposed to be joyful and restorative, that is something I have always struggled with, which means I may be a type A according to Swenson. He says, “Most people find a vacation relaxing, but type A’s often do not. “[5]

            “The overload syndrome is often inaccurately labeled weakness, apathy, or lack of commitment.”[6] It is a shame for people who have taken on so much to be given such negative labels. They are more than likely people who struggle with the ability to say no. So what is needed is margin, “Margin is the opposite of overload.”[7] We often look back at how bad generations before us had it without the modern amenities we often take for granted, but Swenson makes an excellent point, “The past might have been poor and deprived in many respects, but its people had margin.”[8]

            I am not sure whether or not I agree with this statement, “Emotional overload saps our strength, paralyzes our resolve, and maximizes our vulnerability, leaving the door open for even further margin erosion.”[9] There seems to be a lot of truth behind that simple statement, because our emotions play such a vital role in our lives and how we process the things going on around us. It is safe to assume that most people would feel blessed (or at least should) by the amount of things they have but, “the widespread use of illicit drugs in our country is evidence that many perceive their personal lot not as a blessing to celebrate but, instead, as a burden to escape from.”[10] This is a shame because it shows us that we no longer worship the creator, but we have been worshiping creation and it is not meeting the void it has created inside of us.

            As a person who lives with depression, I appreciate the fact he did not brush it of as merely psychosomatic when he said, “A depressed person suffers a type of anguish which in its own way can be as painful as anything that can happen to a human being.”[11] One other thing that I really appreciate about his work is that he does not just tell you that your life is screwed up and there is no hope. I like the fact that he mentions God in positive ways and offers solutions while they are broad because not everyone’s situation is similar. One of the best statements that he made was “Progress brings technology, affluence, and education, but not the kind of inner discipline necessary to maintain sound physical health.”[12] And he is right; there is no amount of money or advancement that can make a person do what they do not already want to do for themselves.

Evaluation

            Swenson has written a book that can do the world some good not just pastors. I would recommend this work to anyone with the caveat not to read it unless you are fully alert, because most of the text is very dry. This work can add to the field of pastoral ministry by providing pastors with material that can be used in counseling sessions, and personal application. This book is beneficial because Swenson seemed to work very hard to offer real life principals and anecdotes.  I have ready many different books on the condition of man, and this one has to be one of the better ones on getting the closest to why we are as miserable as we are. When you read this work he is saying that we have allowed so many things to crowd our lives we have no space, among that no space is time with/for God and the things He wants for us. While I may not agree with everything this author has had to say there is much from this book that can be taken away.

Bibliography

Swenson, Richard A. Margin: Restoring emotional, physical, financial, and time reserves to overloaded lives.          Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2004.

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            [1]Richard A. Swenson, Margin: Restoring emotional, physical, financial, and time reserves to overloaded lives. (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2004)13.

            [2] Ibid., 22.

            [3]Ibid., 29.

            [4] Ibid.44.

            [5] Ibid.47.

            [6] Ibid.59

            [7] Ibid.69

            [8] Ibid.73

            [9] Ibid., 79

            [10] Ibid.,83

            [11] Ibid.84.

            [12] Ibid.96

Review of Crazy Busy

Kevin DeYoung has created a modern day marvel in his latest work Crazy Busy. There are tons of books in the market that will try and teach you how to save time and be more productive. DeYoung does a great job not mysticing busyness and he shows us the gospel throughout the entire work. He has written a work that takes up no more than 120 pages. There is one chapter in particular that hit home for me. It had to do with spending much time in front of the computer screen, smart phone, or even your tablet.  In chapter seven  he says, "The question is not whether the digital revolution adds to the craziness of our lives or whether it poses threats to our souls and our sanity.  The question is, what are the threats and what can we do about them?" (pg79) This chapter is truly eye opening about how much we allow technology to rule over us, I myself have fallen victim to this.
He also makes sure to point out that the need of a sabbath is extremely important. We must not allow our kids to run our lives, what he refers to as the kindergarchy. What he means by this is to stop focusing so much on our children, and trust them to the Lord and knowing he is in control. I am not one to ruin the experience of the reader by giving away too much of the book. I will tell you that no matter how busy you may be, you should create some room in your schedule to read this book. It will be well worth the investment and should be a book you come back to every time you feel life becoming overwhelmed.  This is not a 12 step plan to a less hectic life but a call to examine our lives to see where we can clean things up and re-evaluate our priorities. I received a complementary copy of this book from Crossway in exchange for a fair review. I was not required to write a positive review.
While your life may be crazy or busy or crazy busy invest a few hours into this work an become refreshed.

Critique of His Needs, Her Needs

Summary       

His Needs, Her Needs is a book about affair proofing your marriage written by a psychologist named Willard F. Harley Jr. This is not an extremely lengthy work, weighing in at 204 pages of reading material not including the appendices. Within the pages Harley gives a concise report on the things both husbands and wives are looking for in marriage. He makes sure to emphasize that this work is not a one size fits all type of work, that what he generalizes for men and women may not necessarily be true of the reader and their spouse.

His work contains fourteen chapters, you may ask yourself why when there are only supposed to be ten emotional needs that each of us has. Harley makes the point to say while there are ten emotional needs, men and women often have different needs that fill out their top five requirements in order to be happy and have a successful marriage.  As he goes through the book, he does not break it up into a section merely for each sex; he chooses rather to alternate chapters between the needs of each spouse beginning with the wife’s need for affection, followed by the husbands need for sexual fulfillment. This pattern continues with intimate conversation, recreational companionship, honesty and openness, physical attractiveness, financial support, domestic support, family commitment, and lastly admiration. While all of those are the needs he feels we need to have met he also concludes his book on a note for those marriages that have suffered infidelity, by offering a plan of attack on how to get your marriage back and making it even better than before.

Critique

            Harley’s book is good in the manner that it gives a list of things to live by, but it tends to lack gospel grace. However, in the very first chapter he makes a statement that carries a lot of weight and should help carry the reader through the majority of the book. He says, “Often the failure of husbands and wives to meet the emotional needs is simply due to ignorance of each other’s needs and not selfish unwillingness to be considerate.”[1] Something that stood out is that Harley focused mainly on affairs that were formed as relationships because he makes the statement that “ An affair usually begins as a friendship.”[2]

            In the chapter dealing with sexual fulfillment he says, “I sit and listen to these pathetic and bewildered men so motivated by their need for sex that their reasoning capacities have turned to mush. Ordinarily I would tend to admire these intelligent, successful and otherwise responsible individuals. But their misdirected sex drive has them completely unraveled.”[3] When reading this comment the first thing that came to mind was it seemed a bit harsh and would he be willing to speak of women in similar fashion? Harley asserts, “The first emotional need met in most affairs is intimate conversation.”[4] Then how could he earlier argue about men’s need for sex being such a major factor for adultery? I would argue that the way this book is laid out could possibly be changed in an effort to make the arguments being made a little more coherent.  

            Reading through the chapter on domestic support felt more like it should have been written about her than him; it also could have been put into a different book because it felt completely disjointed from the rest of the material that had been discussed until that point. One of the best statements he made before the chapter took a turn for the worse was, “My point is that most men would have a very difficult time living with a wife who does little or no child care or housework.”[5] One of the best statements he makes comes near the end of the book, in the last section on his needs. Harley says, “A woman needs to appreciate her husband for what he already is, not for what he could be if he lived up to her standards.”[6]

Evaluation

            While this book has its pluses it also has it minuses. It lays out a lot of good areas for anyone whose going into ministry, and even those who are not, it still gives them things to watch out for. However, as a book that is supposed to be used in a Christian setting, I personally would like to have seen more interaction with biblical principals and the Bible itself. This work feels very heavy almost to the point of being “law” like in its presentation. I say that because of the expectations that have been expressed. say for example,0 he mentions the need for couples to have fifteen hours of undivided attention with each other. I appreciate what he is trying to convey, and he points back to when a couple was dating how much easier it was for us to spend that time, there also were not the same demands on us then as there are now. I would recommend this book to someone who is going in to ministry with the caveat that it should be subsidized with another work possibly Mark and Grace Driscoll’s book Real Marriage. 

Bibliography

Harley Jr., Willard F. His Needs, Her Needs. Grand Rapids: Revell, 2011.

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^[1] Willard F. Harley Jr., His Needs, Her Needs. (Grand Rapids: Revell, 2011)19.

[2] Ibid., 20.

[3] Ibid., 51.

[4] Ibid., 72.

[5] Ibid., 146.

[6] Ibid.,172.