A Different Kind of Happiness: Discovering the Joy That Comes from Sacrificial Love by Larry CrabbMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
I struggled to remain interested in the words I was reading and felt sharply disconnected from Crabb's style of writing. I was extremely uncomfortable by his strawman approach to rebutting a comment by John Frame, which he did not elaborate much about what it was and simply passed a few paragraphs of comments that I could not really see the logical flow to. The Scripture passages quoted, if any, followed neither biblical nor systematic theological frameworks. Most of the time though, I found the assertions made were not backed with clear support from Scripture or the field of psychology. Having recently read a book by another Christian psychologist, Dr. Everett Worthington, perhaps set the mental bar of expectation too high; I had hoped and expected to see psychology being governed by the authority of Scripture being explained in layman terminology... But it was not to be.
As I flipped to the back page to check the list of endorsements, I see that the majority are pastors (not theologians, as I'd imagine bible scholars would often be scratching their heads at the multiple verse citing approach to Scripture). It is not often that I read a book that I dislike so much, so I did a quick search on what other reviewers commented, and most had 4 or 5 star ratings for it. So my guess is that this book was written for a very different kind of audience. It would appeal to readers who are looking for a Scripture-light, massively conversational and highly instructional book.
I received this book from the Baker Publishing Group's Blogger Program for the purposes of providing an unbiased review. All views are my own.
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