Clarity Needed
3
By Bargab
A book like this is hard to write, let alone explain well. The concepts in it are based on a developmental theory of growth and development called Object Relations or some adaptation of that theory. When I came out of college in 1994, I was given the idea by God, after reading the Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard and The Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, that spiritual maturity is indeed a developmental process. In my study of psychology, or the human psyche, the idea that our spiritual growth and development follow along the same lines as our physical and emotional growth and development through Erik Erikson's theory was born.
So, I can appreciate Dr. Cloud's attempt here, but it is always tough to try and explain such a massive or comphrensive topic so that the causal reader can understand. Sometimes, Dr. Cloud explains things so simple it's hard to understand, if that makes sense. The concepts in such theories of development are very complex and the words are important to not water down. For example, I would have liked to read how Dr. Cloud understands how the stages of growh are dependent on each other, which they are. They are supposed to build on each other, but this is not explained very well.
All in all, though, writing a book like this is very original in the Christian culture and there will be misunderstandings since the study of psychology is still seen as demonic within that culture. It is not demonic anymore than the study of biology or ethics.