Why I Believe
A Psychologist's Thoughts on Suffering, Miracles, Science, and Faith
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4.1 • 12 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A leadership expert, clinical psychologist, and New York Times bestselling author asks the big questions and shares his early mental health struggles in this groundbreaking, uplifting book.
World-renowned psychologist and leadership expert Henry Cloud has impacted millions of lives through his groundbreaking books and through his work coaching leaders of the most influential organizations in the world. But few people know the details of his own story and how he became one of the most beloved and respected psychologists and faith influencers in America.
In this indelibly personal and vulnerable book, Dr. Cloud leads us through his early struggles with illness and depression and the miracles that healed him and led him to his calling as a healer of others. Through masterful storytelling combined with a deeply nuanced understanding of the human mind, Dr. Cloud invites readers to inhabit the spaces of suffering and elation that make us most human and to walk alongside of him as he ponders the great questions we are so often afraid to ask but which also give life meaning.
Written in the vein of such groundbreaking books as An Unquiet Mind, When Breath Becomes Air, and On Being Mortal, Why I Believe is a masterwork in spiritual exploration from one of the great scientific minds and faith voices of our time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cloud (Trust) meditates in this intimate account on the "unexpected miracles" that have shaped his life. In loose and digressive prose, he writes of struggling as a child with a debilitating hip condition, until a "divine voice" instructed his mother to drive from Mississippi to the New Orleans hospital where a surgeon developed the treatment plan that helped him recover. Elsewhere, he recounts how a "supernatural experience" in which God "came into... my being in the most powerful way I know how to describe" jolted him from despondency after he lost a bank teller job in college, and how God "healed" his depression through the aid of his friends, family, and doctor. Sections that draw on his psychologist's training make for the most fascinating parts of the book (of the divine vision he had after losing his college job, Cloud acknowledges, "If I heard this from someone, I might think they were having a manic episode, but I wasn't... my thinking, impulse control, reality orientation... were all fine"). Readers will also be intrigued by his arguments that psychological principles are grounded in, rather than antithetical to, scripture (for example, the Proverbs quote "If you rescue an angry man, you will only have to do it again" resonates with prevailing wisdom on not being an "enabler" for those with anger problems). It's a wise and well-informed inquiry into faith's many mysteries.
