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

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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.

In Jay Adams' book, "The Biblical View of Self-Esteem, Self-Love, & Self-Image," he gets to the point very quickly in the first few pages. He boldly asserts that Bible believing Christians have strange bedfellows when they support the teachings of self-esteem along side unbelievers. He notes that the spread of self-esteem is not only widely accepted and promoted in Christian circles, but parallels the strong emphasis found in everyday society to include liberals and those openly antagonistic toward believers. Pick up any magazine or tune into any talk show and eventually you'll find someone talking about self-esteem. Adams quotes two sources at the opposite end of the theological spectrum to prove his point:
"Self-esteem is... the single greatest need facing the human race today."--Robert Schuller. "If I could write a prescription for the women of the world, I would provide each one of them with a healthy does of self-esteem and personal worth.... I have no doubt that is their greatest need."--James Dobson
To be sure, Adams also notes Anthony Hoekema's criticism of the hymn "At the Cross" where it speaks of "such a worm as I." Hoekema says the hymn conveys an unflattering self-image. (Perhaps that's why it was later changed in some hymnals to "For such a sinner as I," or even "Such a one as I." This is clear evidence that love of self has not only permeated the gospel message but has lead to the editing of traditional hymns!). In any event, Adams insists the church can't stand idly by, but must confront this growing philosophy who Abraham Maslow is given credit as the founding father. Adams believes this self-esteem heresy was brought into the church by Christian psychologists and psychiatrists under the cliché, "all truth is God's truth." This self-love doctrine has already had a significant impact on the church and Christians who believe they can engage in accommodating the theory will compromise truth in the end.
For the next several chapters, Adams evaluates self-esteem in the light of the scriptures. He begins by dismantling Maslow's hierarchy needs starting with its basic premise; people are not motivated to meet higher needs until the lower needs are met. Does this mean that man cannot be held responsible for failing to love God or his neighbor because some lower need has not been satisfied? This is not found in the Bible Adams says. Even more foreign is the notion that before you can love your neighbor you must love yourself first. Adams soundly disproves that thinking with a clear exegesis of Matthew 22:26-40, i.e., "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." He also refutes the idea that man is of infinite worth and worthy of salvation. J.I. Packer's quote at end of one chapter sums it up best: "...modern Christians...spread a thin layer of Bible teaching over a thin mixture of popular psychology and common sense they offer, but their overall approach clearly, reflects the narcissism-the 'selfism' or 'meism' as it is sometimes called-that is the way of the world in the modern West."
Many folks say that criticism is cheep but it is harder to offer alternatives. Adams doesn't take the easy way out in closing his book, but instead offers a biblical alternative to the self-worth doctrine. He explains Jesus taught self-denial rather than self-affirmation was the proper way to approach God. In fact, 2 Timothy 3:2 says that people will be lovers of themselves in the last days. Adams peppers the final pages of his book with numerous biblical references that reinforces the concept of denying self, loosing ones life, and dieing to oneself.
How then does one garner an accurate self-image? Interesting that Adams titles this chapter "An accurate Self-Image," but the phrase "Self-Image" appears nowhere in the text of the chapter. The apparent reason is that Adams doesn't want us to use a phrase which had its origins in humanistic psychology. He wants us to instead use biblical language. He states that God does want us to evaluate ourselves however; the emphasis must be on doing it accurately. Quoting Romans 12:3, "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you." Don't think more highly of ourselves, but instead evaluate ourselves soberly according to evidence. He also says that we must not compare ourselves with others and cites Galatians 6:4, "Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else."
Adams' book makes for easy reading and understandable reasoning. He challenges many presuppositions and the counselor will find it very helpful with the numerous scriptural references and case study analysis. As Adams says, hopefully the reader will come away with an understanding that "satisfaction..., comes not when one pursues it, but unexpectedly and always as a by-product of faithful fruitful Christian living."

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.

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.

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 is a very good book on the invasion of psychology into the church of Christ, and how it perverts the Gospel. The only negative on this book is it leaves room for the Biblical Counseling model that is fashioned after psychological counseling instead of returning to strictly Biblical methods of improvement and support within a church.

The chapter that had the most impact on me was one that simply began:

"In the following chapter I shall have occasion to show that man is of value only to other men, and not to God at all." Page 85 Loc. 881-82

God does not love us because of our value to him, he loves us despite us having no value to him. The Bible makes it clear that we are valuable to each other (mankind) but salvation and grace is God loving us despite our worthlessness and compounded worthlessness due to our constant rebelling against him.

"Israel's problem was thinking that she was of great value to God. To disabuse her of any such notion, He told her in no uncertain terms that it was not because of anything in her that He chose her to become His holy nation but as He put it, "because the Lord loved you" (Duet 7:6-8). Divine grace begins in God with His love--not in man with his value. To make redemption at any level depend on man's worth rather than on God's mercy is to do despite to grace." Page 89 Loc. 913-16

The book is worth reading even just for this chapter, Adams shows quite how plainly God tells us in the Bible that our worth is in His worth alone. The Bible uses words such as "grass", "breath", "wretched" and of course "sinners". Adam also goes further to explain what being made in the image of God means, and that this does not give us redeeming value. If it did then Hitler and the like including you and I would be saved out of this "image of God" value, and not by Christ's work on the cross alone.

He gives an example that if he were to show you a photo of his wife, he would be truly insulted if you ripped it up: "The picture itself--the paper and ink, etc--is not of much value. It is worth only a few cents. What is of concern to me is not the picture itself but the one whom it represents."..."It is the One whose image and likeness man bears that is of significance--not the man who bears that image and likeness. He is merely the photograph." Page 82 Loc. 835-44

Again Adam's commenting on a quotation:
"This writer seems to think that because man is so precious, we should expect God to have redeemed him. What unbelievable toying with heresy in the name of Christianity! When I cease being amazed that Christ died to save "such a worm as I," I shall start wondering about my salvation. This sad response to God's marvelous grace seems all too symptomatic of this movement that is bent on glorifying man rather than God." Page 91 Loc. 935-43

The book is not long and really is one of my best reads of this year. It really caused me to realise how self-focused I am and to understand that to "deny self" does not mean to deny myself of something, but to deny one's own self. To "take up the cross" does not mean to make some particular sacrifice or refers to a burden but rather "taking up the cross meant one and only one thing: putting to death an infamous criminal" and that criminal is our sinful nature and who we are every minute of the day. We are saved by grace alone, and this should produce repentance and glory to God.

Thanks be to God!

This book was given to me by my pastor a few years ago and I just now read it. While sometimes the language and explanation is a little dry, his arguments are definitely Biblically sound and thought provoking.

I am reminded of Luther's definition of sin, "homo in se incurvatus" or "man curved in on himself." This book helps show the validity of that statement as it exposes the idolatry of good feelings and contributes to what Christian Smith calls 'Moralistic therapeutic deism.' We need to know that God wasn't obligated to offer us salvation because of our default value, especially since the angels, being higher than us, were not offered forgiveness when they rebelled. God chose to love us and offer us salvation, and because of that, the joy that the self-love advocates are seeking is found in Christ alone and only pacified everywhere else.

The negative reviews of this book make it sound like they hadn't yet read it before they wrote their criticisms. Adams backs up what he says with scripture and exposes the poor exegesis and clearly fallacious eisegesis of this ungodly selfish view.

A good read that can done in just a couple hours.

An evangelical attempt to lower America's self esteem. Why they want to do this? I can only think that people with low self esteem are more likely to put money in there collection box. People that love themselves in the way God intended won't fall for their ploy.

I GOT VERY LITTLE REDEEMING VALUE FROM THIS BOOK. HE CRITISIZED JAME DOBSON AND LARRY CRAB AMONG OTHERS. I HAPPEN TO BE FOND OF THESE AUTHORS. HE CRITISIZES THE 'SELF ESTEEM MOVEMENT' WITHOUT GIVING ANYTHING HE BELIEVES TO BE THE ANSWER.MOST BOOKS I READ HAVE SOMETHING TO HELP ME GROW IN THE LORD. THIS DID NOTHING FOR ME. WHAT WAS HIS POINT? WE ARE CREATED BY GOD. GOD DOES'NT MAKE TRASH.