Customer Reviews

Understanding People

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"Understanding People" marked something of a turning in Crabb's writing and ministry. In some of his previous works such as "Effective Biblical Counseling" and "Basic Principles of Biblical Counseling," Crabb focused more on integrating biblical and psychological concepts. With "Understanding People," Crabb emphasizes a biblical model of the "imago Dei" (the capacities of the image of God in human nature).

The first section, consisting of four chapters on the sufficiency of Scripture, is perhaps the most vital material in the book. Crabb logically, practically, and biblically states his well-thought-through model of the Scriptures as a foundation for Christian counseling.

The bulk of the book then focuses on the nature of human nature. Here Crabb describes the four fundamental capacities of the human personality: we are relational (we long), rational (we think), volitional (we purpose), and emotional (we feel).

Interestingly, some have criticized Crabb's teaching on relational longings, stating that no one in Church history prior to Crabb made longings an aspect of the "imago Dei." These folks should read more Church history. Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Baxter, Edwards, and so many more stalwarts of the Christian faith, not only taught about religious affections and relational longings, they taught that they were essential components of the human personality as designed by God.

One could wish that "Understanding People" said more about our physicality and the inner-play between mind and body. One could also wish for more "how to" based upon the excellent insights into our inner nature. However, no one book can do it all. "Understanding People" does successfully meet it's primary goal of providing a biblical psychology of human nature--in it's original glory, fallen depravity, and redeemed dignity.

Reviewer: Dr. Robert W. Kellemen is the author of "Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction," "Spiritual Friends: A Methodology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction," and the forthcoming "Sacred Companions: A History of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction."

Even though I am not a professional counselor like the author, I did find the title to be an informative read on human nature. The book covers basic Christian viewpoints of human nature: we are fallen and yet are on a search for deep and lasting fulfillment.

The book is divided into 3 major areas:

1. A Sufficient Bible - Finding answers in scripture.
2. Understanding People - A tarnished image and broken relationships.
3. Growing Toward Maturity - A restored image and healed relationships.

The book covers principles such as:

1. Different positions on how the Bible addresses problems.
2. Describing human nature (we are emotional, free to choose, personal, can truly change).
3. How we and our relationships can be improved (move out of an emphasis on self-protection from pain and become more involved in other people's lives, realize that pain is a normal in life and we should not expend too much energy trying to feel good, and realize that Christ is our sufficiency).

Understanding People is an enjoyable read and is recommended for the professional counselor, minister, or anyone who wants to know more about human nature from a Christian worldview.

I was required to read this book for my Biblical Foundations of Counseling class, and I am so glad I actually read it! This book seriously helps you understand the workings of your own mind and even if you don't have deep rooted issue, you still are able to understand things like your thought process better! I recommend anyone who wants to understand the way sinful humans think to read this book! I loved it! I hate to read and I couldn't put it down! If you like to read interesting books(cause usually one likes to read boring books) read this one! Crabb has done it again!

With Understanding People, Larry Crabb hopes to set forth the sufficiency of Scripture as the necessary tool for effective counseling, to categorize the nature and condition of humankind that presents itself to the counselor, and to recommend to counselors a path toward their client's wholeness. The book is therefore necessarily ambitious in its scope, but Crabb succeeds in pulling off large sections of the project successfully. The book has a amiable tone throughout, and one reads with the sense that the author hold considerable experience with, and has given great thought to, the largest issues facing those in counseling professions.

In the first of three book sections, A Sufficient Bible, Crabb examines the four conventionally held sources of (practical) epistemological certainty: intuition, reason, experience, and revelation. The first three are useful as far as they go, but are necessarily insufficient for understanding people. What stirs in the human soul and motivates behaviors can only be viewed through the fourth category, and the Christian Scriptures alone can properly focus the lens on the seemingly inscrutable behavior of human beings.

Given the utility of Scripture, Crabb distinguishes between two models for making use of it. The commonplace but wrongheaded model proposes that every relevant behavioral matter is directly addressed within the Bible. But Crabb argues for a more sensible view: that the Bible provides a sufficiently capacious group of moral and spiritual categories, and that all counseling issues will always fall within these larger categories. Thus, while the Bible may not address bulimia per se, it does supply ample information about what drives the bulimic person's behavior. The argument is well-reasoned and convincing, and the reader will likely return to the book for a fresh restatement of this critically important understanding of the complete relevance of Scripture to all counseling categories and issues.

The second book section, Understanding People, features a magisterial argument for the depravity of humans and their fallen state as the very wellspring of counseling issues. People, while bearing the image of their Creator, bear only a (very) tarnished version of this likeness. They were created to be dependent on God, and all disorders of the soul stem from man's attempt to connect himself to something other than the One whom can satisfy. In particular, people are deeply opposed to the vulnerable exposure that inevitably accompanies a complete dependence on God. When counselors hear depictions of their patient's discomfort, they are commonly listening to products of this unwillingness to conform to a right dependency on God.

Unfortunately, the book stumbles here at its very height, where Christ alone is the means for rich reconciliation to God, both in his finished work and in his ongoing mediatorial activities. Rather than pressing into a discussion of the fullness of Christ and a pastoral consideration of how to grasp Him by faith and flourish under godly dependency, Crabb recommends "deep repentance", a reach inside one's self to gouge out what bars the way to greater wellness. This is simply another turn to the self, which can accomplish nothing. The remainder of the book drops off rapidly in its efficacy and Crabb, having so effectively cleared the trash from the well, ultimately fails to draw water for the reader.

The reader can benefit from taking to heart Crabb's depiction of human depravity, but should look elsewhere to find the remedy of Christ. If you are sufficiently starved by the spiritual poverty of our age and can get past the silly view that the Puritans were starchy, gimlet-eyed moralists, you will find amongst them pastoral giants and a treasure trove of helps for the soul.

Crabb sets forth the idea that our deep longings for true relationship inevitably lead to pain and hurt. Attempts to avoid the pain of sorrow, disappointing relationships, or conflicts rob us of the experience of our true humanness. In reality, these circumstances can push us on to a deeper awareness of our dependency on God, which in turn frees us to love ourselves and others as fallen, not-yet-glorified human beings. Though the book is intended to assist counselors and others who facilitate change in others, it also offers many insights for anyone who is seriously interested in understanding human behavior.

Larry Crabb is my favorite author. This is one of his older books, but still full of wisdom. A little wordy but well worth the effort.