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heidihaverkamp's review
4.0
A lot of good stuff here about not seeing human beings as so exalted and full of potential. Written from a Christian, mostly ex-evangelical perspective - which made the last two chapters about politics and religion a bit awkward and simplistic to me.
persistent_reader's review
5.0
The pressure to do more, be more is taking its toll on all of us. This pressure may be conscious but very often it's just in the air we breathe. It may not show up on the radar until we stop and ask questions or worse - burn out. The answer may being dialing back the expectations of how we see ourselves through "Low Anthropology."
Low anthropology rests on 3 pillars - Limitations - self explanatory, Doubleness - conflicting movitavtions and desires from within ourselves, and Self-centeredness. This view isn't condoning sin or nixing sanctification. Rather if we take off our idealistic rose-colored glasses and be more honest, then we are more likely to receive the grace we need and extend that grace to others.
I am always on the lookout for books that aim to help restore our humanity and address the many ways we still believe that "You will be like God." Low Anthropology is one of those books. It's very practical and down-to-earth. Not a how-to but encourages thoughtful reflection for the reader to apply these ideas to their own lives.
Low anthropology rests on 3 pillars - Limitations - self explanatory, Doubleness - conflicting movitavtions and desires from within ourselves, and Self-centeredness. This view isn't condoning sin or nixing sanctification. Rather if we take off our idealistic rose-colored glasses and be more honest, then we are more likely to receive the grace we need and extend that grace to others.
I am always on the lookout for books that aim to help restore our humanity and address the many ways we still believe that "You will be like God." Low Anthropology is one of those books. It's very practical and down-to-earth. Not a how-to but encourages thoughtful reflection for the reader to apply these ideas to their own lives.
josaye's review
Dumb. Book club said America couldn’t end slavery bc it wasn’t ready. Nothing to do with the book but needless to say I stopped going.
dbg108's review
2.0
I resonate with the rhetorical goals of this book: to help people live better, more meaningful lives through self-reflection. But I find this whole approach rather baffling. It seems to me that one of the biggest pitfalls of humanity is our judgments - judgements of others and judgements of ourselves. And centering an entire schema on a "high" vs "low" view of humanity risks centering all of life on a key judgment. Perhaps this is inevitable, and we have to choose, so the author is advocating for choosing to go "low." But throughout this book, I kept thinking, "well, it depends," or "it's more complicated than that," or "couldn't it be both?"
In the end, I think the book presents a much too oversimplified anthropology. Human beings are a great, paradoxical mix of high and low, perfect and imperfect, divine and devilish. We all could do well to learn to embrace the full spectrum.
In the end, I think the book presents a much too oversimplified anthropology. Human beings are a great, paradoxical mix of high and low, perfect and imperfect, divine and devilish. We all could do well to learn to embrace the full spectrum.
drbobcornwall's review
3.0
Anthropology involves the study of human life, culture, and existence. Theological anthropology obviously looks at human existence but from a theological rather than scientific perspective. As you can imagine, as a theological category it is complex. There isn't just one Christian anthropology, because different traditions look at humanity differently. We might start with the premise that humans are created in the image of God (Gen. 1), but from there we rarely agree. In fact, things get complicated with the story of the fall. What actually happened in the Garden and how might what happened there get passed on to the rest of humanity. While some take that story very literally and presume that at the beginning there was a couple named Adam and Eve and everyone descends from them. For others of us, who do not embrace the literalness of the story, we can ask the question of how that story influences how we see human life.
I've shared all of this as a prelude to my review of David Zahl's "Low Anthropology." Zahl offers the book as a word of grace and hope to beleaguered Christians who find themselves unable to live up to the "standards" set up for them. Zahl is the founder and director of Mockingbird Ministries and author. He is the son of a retired Episcopal priest -- [a:Paul Zahl|21845861|Paul Zahl|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] -- and a staff member of an Episcopal Church in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The book seeks to address our expectations of human life, as Christians, as it relates to many life issues, ranging from friendship to politics. He wants to address what he believes is a perfectionism inherent in what he calls "high Anthropology." This view of humanity, apparently, is highly optimistic about human ability to live the Christian life, and that leads, in his estimation to burnout. He offers, as an alternative, a low anthropology that is grace-filled and assumes that it is God who needs to act. If we let God act and rest in God's grace, knowing there is nothing we can do on our own, we'll be much happier. Thus, he's a critic of the self-help genre and optimistic theologies like those purveyed by a Robert Schuller.
There is much to like here, as he does speak of grace. Yet, I also found the book confounding. Ultimately, the message here is deeply rooted in Augustinianism and perhaps Luther. He doesn't speak of total depravity, but he does appear to have low expectations for humanity. While humility is a good quality to develop, at times it seemed that he was advocating passivity. As the book came to a conclusion and the Augustinian/Lutheran vision became clearer (though for someone trained in theology it's clear from the beginning), I wondered how he deals with, for instance, the letter of James or even the Sermon on the Mount. He seems to be critical of the social justice movement within mainline Christianity, even as he is concerned about the puritanism of conservative Protestantism.
I expect that this book will be a welcome contribution to the lives of those who have struggled with perfectionism. On the other hand, I can see others finding permission here to just live and let live because it's all in God's hands. In other words, I think there is room for a middle anthropology, one that's not so high that it assumes we are capable of doing whatever is needed with little or no help from God, or so low that it is assumed that nothing is really expected of us because it's all up to God. As James reminds us, faith without works is dead. So, perhaps we need is a bit of Christian realism, that is a bit of Reinhold Niebuhr, so that we can be cognizant of our own limits, something that Zahl emphasizes, while not undermining the call to act.
I've shared all of this as a prelude to my review of David Zahl's "Low Anthropology." Zahl offers the book as a word of grace and hope to beleaguered Christians who find themselves unable to live up to the "standards" set up for them. Zahl is the founder and director of Mockingbird Ministries and author. He is the son of a retired Episcopal priest -- [a:Paul Zahl|21845861|Paul Zahl|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] -- and a staff member of an Episcopal Church in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The book seeks to address our expectations of human life, as Christians, as it relates to many life issues, ranging from friendship to politics. He wants to address what he believes is a perfectionism inherent in what he calls "high Anthropology." This view of humanity, apparently, is highly optimistic about human ability to live the Christian life, and that leads, in his estimation to burnout. He offers, as an alternative, a low anthropology that is grace-filled and assumes that it is God who needs to act. If we let God act and rest in God's grace, knowing there is nothing we can do on our own, we'll be much happier. Thus, he's a critic of the self-help genre and optimistic theologies like those purveyed by a Robert Schuller.
There is much to like here, as he does speak of grace. Yet, I also found the book confounding. Ultimately, the message here is deeply rooted in Augustinianism and perhaps Luther. He doesn't speak of total depravity, but he does appear to have low expectations for humanity. While humility is a good quality to develop, at times it seemed that he was advocating passivity. As the book came to a conclusion and the Augustinian/Lutheran vision became clearer (though for someone trained in theology it's clear from the beginning), I wondered how he deals with, for instance, the letter of James or even the Sermon on the Mount. He seems to be critical of the social justice movement within mainline Christianity, even as he is concerned about the puritanism of conservative Protestantism.
I expect that this book will be a welcome contribution to the lives of those who have struggled with perfectionism. On the other hand, I can see others finding permission here to just live and let live because it's all in God's hands. In other words, I think there is room for a middle anthropology, one that's not so high that it assumes we are capable of doing whatever is needed with little or no help from God, or so low that it is assumed that nothing is really expected of us because it's all up to God. As James reminds us, faith without works is dead. So, perhaps we need is a bit of Christian realism, that is a bit of Reinhold Niebuhr, so that we can be cognizant of our own limits, something that Zahl emphasizes, while not undermining the call to act.
jaynaclay21's review
5.0
This was a solid read. I haven’t been in the kids for books like this lately but this was good. Most of the time these types of books are repetitive, and tell you to do better, be better. But this book was just solid. Not repetitive, actually had good information in it and brought up perspectives that made me think and notice certain things in my day to day and relationships. It’s a good book, I recommend!