Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
  • List Price: $15.00
  • Save: $2.40 (16%)
FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.
Only 6 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
I Told Me So: Self-Decept... has been added to your Cart
Want it Wednesday, Aug. 17? Order within and choose this date at checkout.
Ship to:
Select a shipping address:
To see addresses, please
or
Please enter a valid US zip code.
or
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.
Used: Good | Details
Sold by giggil
Fulfilled by Amazon
Condition: Used: Good

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you increase your sales. We invite you to learn more about Fulfillment by Amazon .

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 2 images

I Told Me So: Self-Deception and the Christian Life Paperback – June 22, 2009

by
Gregg A. Ten Elshof (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Gregg A. Ten Elshof Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Gregg A. Ten Elshof (Author), Dallas Willard (Foreword)
4.8 out of 5 stars 28 customer reviews
See all 3 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
$9.98
— —
Paperback
"Please retry"
$12.60
$8.48 $3.50
Wiley Summer Savings Event.
Wiley Summer Savings Event.
Save up to 40% during Wiley's Summer Savings Event. Learn more.
$12.60 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. Only 6 left in stock (more on the way). Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
click to open popover

Frequently Bought Together

  • I Told Me So: Self-Deception and the Christian Life
  • +
  • Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box
  • +
  • Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition
Total price: $34.07
One of these items ships sooner than the other. Show details
Buy the selected items together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Back
  1. Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God
    Dallas Willard
    4.6 out of 5 stars 222
    Paperback
    $10.91 Prime
  2. The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community
    Hugh Halter
    4.4 out of 5 stars 107
    Hardcover
    $17.97 Prime
  3. The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe About Ourselves
    Curt Thompson
    4.6 out of 5 stars 37
    Hardcover
    $15.59 Prime
  4. Epistemology: Becoming Intellectually Virtuous (Contours of Christian Philosophy)
    W. Jay Wood
    4.2 out of 5 stars 19
    Paperback
    $13.37 Prime
  5. Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box
    The Arbinger Institute
    4.5 out of 5 stars 1,148
    Paperback
    $10.17 Prime
  6. Intellectual Virtues: An Essay in Regulative Epistemology (Advances in Cognitive Models & Arch)
    Robert C. Roberts
    5.0 out of 5 stars 1
    Paperback
    $33.96 Prime
Next
If you buy a new print edition of this book (or purchased one in the past), you can buy the Kindle edition for only $2.99 (Save 70%). Print edition purchase must be sold by Amazon. Learn more.
For thousands of qualifying books, your past, present, and future print-edition purchases now lets you buy the Kindle edition for $2.99 or less. (Textbooks available for $9.99 or less.)
  • Thousands of books are eligible, including current and former best sellers.
  • Look for the Kindle MatchBook icon on print and Kindle book detail pages of qualifying books. You can also see more Kindle MatchBook titles here or look up all of your Kindle MatchBook titles here.
  • Read the Kindle edition on any Kindle device or with a free Kindle Reading App.
  • Print edition must be purchased new and sold by Amazon.com.
  • Gifting of the Kindle edition at the Kindle MatchBook price is not available.
Learn more about Kindle MatchBook.
The latest book club pick from Oprah
"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead is a magnificent novel chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. See more

Product Details

  • Paperback: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Eerdmans (June 22, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0802864112
  • ISBN-13: 978-0802864116
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #304,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsA Skilled Exposition of The Dangers and Grace of Self-Deception
By Amazon Customer on July 5, 2009
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
There are books and then there are books!

Some books are praised for their ability to lucidly explain previous old concepts.

Other books are praised not due it its readability (think about Kant's works) but for its originality and breathtaking insight.

This book is the best of two worlds: readable and originality

It is not that there are no books available on self-deception, but that there are very few Christian books that deal with this topic. If it was not for a chapter written in "Beyond Opinion" by Danielle Durant, I would not have realized the extent and the benefits of it in the Christian life.

But what Durant could only touch on, Elshof has brought to completion. One of the best features of this book is its readability! I found myself captivated as he lucidly explained how we tend to deceive ourselves in various scenarios. He uses illustrations upon illustrations that are humorous, but yet profound.

It was so good in fact that, when i took the book with me as I went shopping, I found myself, reading the book, instead of carrying out my goal of shopping. Also there were so many insights that i found myself, constantly sharing them friends and rethinking some of personal behaviors in the past and wondering if I has deceived myself or seeing how deception helped me cope in the past.

So if you are wondering if it is worth money, its worth five times the price - just about every page has something underlined or highlighted. And seeing that I have a large collection of books and only came upon this topic, about twice, for most individuals it will be a message challenging us to see self-deception in both a positive and negative light.

Why would we deceive ourselves?Read more ›
2 Comments 109 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsBeliefs and what we do in living them: Our secrets unveiled
By Edward M. Freeman on October 25, 2009
Format: Paperback
If readers are to "...walk as children of the light" (Ephesians 5, quoted in Dallas Willard's Foreword), then they should benefit from reading Ten Elshof's book. The author discusses obtuse and sinewy paths of self-deception. Despite persistent introspection, false beliefs at the core self-deception may remain intransigent to contradiction. Why is this?

First, Ten Elshof assumes a universal capability to spot hypocrisy in self by conscience. Second, he proposes ways that rank-and-file human beings obscure or ignore what the conscience says. Included in the author's suggested processes to conceal deception are inattentiveness, procrastination, switching perspective, rationalization, and ressentiment.

The trouble caused by deception would be bad enough if it were perpetrated by an individual alone. But adding group-think to the mix compounds distortions associated with false perceptions. Group-think can supply an individual with authoritative nostrums to encapsulate deception, thus making the gulf separating belief and action too perilous to cross.

One such nostrum for the author is 'authenticity as virtue.' Aggravated by contemporaries elevating 'authenticity' to a rank congruent with virtue, the author spots how fast self-deception reached the top of the vice list in contemporary evangelical Christian circles. He proposes that by knocking authenticity from the virtues list self-deception will fall among vices, as well.

Group-think reinforces individuals in a collective conceit by ascribing malice to anyone exposing deception, particularly when group members perceive that exposing self-deception undermines group authority.Read more ›
Comment 25 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsshort review
By J&C Begg on July 10, 2009
Format: Paperback
I loved this book.
I was a student of Dr. Ten Elshof's found it amazing that he could explain philosophy so that I could understand it. This book about a much more accessible topic than the classes that I took. Even here his clear, concise, effective teaching style [now writing style, I guess] makes the subject understandable and poignant.
I found it to be a quick read, but also quite deep. I found myself reading several passages aloud to my wife, underlining several parts, and stowing passages away mentally for future reflection.
i plan on buying copies for friends, then reading it again with them, so that we can all work together to mutually apply the truths presented.
jared
Comment 25 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
4.0 out of 5 starsWritten for the Purpose of Learning and Applying.
By mkanyion on October 22, 2014
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This is my first intentional appointment with the subject of self-deception. Honestly, the only reason I read it was because I am a huge Dallas Willard fan, and I noticed that he wrote the foreword. Having read it, I must say that I am intrigued by the subject, and a bit shocked that it is not dealt with by more authors. Ten Elshof, though a philosopher, writes in a manner that is easy to understand, and he uses concrete examples to explain what might be difficult for some. One example of this is when he deals with R.D. Laing's "Happy Family Game." Instead of making a non-philosophy student work it out on their own, he gives an example of how this works in his own community. So what might have been difficult to grasp is instantly made easy. His explanation of the positives of self-deception are also very helpful. Please read the book. I am glad I did. I am also going on to read other works that Gregg recommends on the subject.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsVery much deeper material to read than I anticipated - ...

Very much deeper material to read than I anticipated - so expect to reread this very thought provoking book - Ten Elshof sheds much light on the topic of self-deception. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Lorna M. Bolkey
4.0 out of 5 starsNot always comfortable, but always hopeful

Thoughtful, well-developed argument. Not always comfortable, but always hopeful. I recommend it.

Published 13 months ago by Shayne Looper
4.0 out of 5 starsInterestingly challenging and discouraging

The principles and understandings that are contained within should be a required course of study for psychology doctoral programs. Read more

Published 14 months ago by Daniel L. Taylor
5.0 out of 5 starsGood tool for soul searching

This is what growing up and maturing is all about. Of course we are always finding new ways to deceive ourselves so it bears periodic review:)

Published 21 months ago by etevaatlik
5.0 out of 5 starsHow People and Groups Get Blindspots

This book includes great insight into how groups can deceive themselves. If you have ever been hurt by a group of Christian leaders, this book will help with the healing process.

Published on April 22, 2014 by Ritchard G Bergen
5.0 out of 5 starsScorcher!

Smartest and most helpful Christian book I've read in a very long time. It is a scorcher in every chapter and practically every page, especially for self satisfied evangelicals... Read more

Published on October 31, 2013 by Jfred
5.0 out of 5 starsVery Pleased

The book was delivered on time and in great shape. It is a great book on self-deception and the Christian life. Read more

Published on October 21, 2013 by Linda A. Montoya
5.0 out of 5 starsNot what I expected

I've read through the book several times now and am trying to apply what I've read. The author does an excellent job of making the material very readable with lots of examples to... Read more

Published on September 3, 2013 by FunGuy
4.0 out of 5 starsA MUST read...

For anyone whose made mistakes in giving a false perception & lying to yourself; helped me understand deeper how to be "real."

Published on July 29, 2013 by Jd wiles
4.0 out of 5 stars"Why," one might ask, "do I not naturally ACT as though Jesus gave his...

On the same page (21), Ten Elshof continues:
"...with very few exceptions, no one has any trouble acting out their beliefs. You DO act in accordance with your beliefs. Read more

Published on May 29, 2013 by Enten Eller

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

I Told Me So: Self-Deception and the Christian Life
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway
This item: I Told Me So: Self-Deception and the Christian Life
Set up a giveaway

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

Pages with Related Products. See and discover other items: christianity