Author PAUL TOURNIER
Publisher HODDER
ISBN 0-340-18222-9
As far as I am aware there are few of Tournier’s books available new nowadays. On the second hand market some are asking crazy prices whilst they can often be found in Thrift Stores for very little. He was a prominent Swiss psychologist who began practicing in Geneva in 1928. His writings became steadily available and impacted many in the fifties and sixties. From the outset it was his interest in the ‘whole man’ that carried him forward in his practice and writings. Obviously, being a psychotherapist and psychologist, he was familiar with the writings of influential men in that field, men such as Freud and C.G.Jung; but Tournier was a Christian and was able to subject the insights of these men to the revelation of God in the Scriptures. It is intriguing to read this particular book on guilt and grace with this in mind. Although there are plenty of quotes from other ‘secular’ psychologists and psychiatrists the main thrust is thoroughly Christ centered and therefore, truly Christian. There are plenty of what we could call pop psychology books on the shelves of Christian bookstores and unfortunately many of them seem to invert these two things, instead of the insights of psychology being subjected to the scrutiny of the Biblical Revelation that Revelation is used as something to bolster the insights of psychology! This is altogether wrong and it is a pleasure to read a book where there is an appropriate integration of these latter insights with the ancient counsel of God as revealed in the Bible in His dealings with various men and women. In the first section of his book this writer analyzes something of the ravages of guilt in the human soul, he makes helpful distinctions between guilt both false and true, showing differences between inferiority feelings, taboos and the true convicting power of the Holy Spirit. He shows how both kinds of guilt have a devastating effect on the human being and that the grace of God in Christ is the only real remedy. The removal of false guilt is vital to the discovery of true guilt and only then can the Christian gospel be brought to bear bringing about lasting deliverance from condemnation. Make no mistake about it, this is a thoroughly Christian book in which Christ and His work is set forth in no uncertain manner. God has paid the price for sin in His Son and His death at Calvary. Repentance, confession of sin, the ministry of forgiveness all are given expression in the final chapters which closes with a chapter entitled “the order of Melchisedec” suggesting that the church should understand, and its leaders in particular, that the heart of help to mankind is to be found in the true spiritual priesthood. So, here is a book first written and available in French in 1958 and translated into English and published in 1962; it has a vital message for us all today.
