Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing (The IVP Signature Collection)

After reading Crouch’s “Culture Making” and “Playing God,” I was excited for the release of “Strong and Weak.” It is, I must say, surprisingly short. Though it is nearly 200 pages, the physical size of the book is quite small. The thesis, however, is anything but small. Flourishing – a word that has become increasingly popular as of late – is only achieved when we have both power (authority) and weakness (vulnerability) working together. This is the paradox of flourishing and, as the author shows, the paradox of good leadership. Crouch’s thesis is very easy to grasp – in fact, it appears frequently in 2x2 diagram form – but is profound which speaks to his great writing ability. It also, as the author points out, speaks to the nature of the truth he is writing about:“Many simple ideas are simplistic – they filter out too much of reality to be truly useful. This one is not, because it is a particular kind of simple idea, the kind we call a paradox. It holds together two simple truths in a simple relationship, but it generates fruitful tension, complexity and possibility” (10).In writing about flourishing, he also writes about the three other competing categories: exploiting, withdrawing, and suffering. Suffering, different from the other two, has the potential to lead us back into real flourishing, as he notes towards the end of the book. I’m not a leadership book kind of guy, but each of these categories has important lessons for anyone in leadership.Some books have great content which can be broken down and shared but are, perhaps, too heady for most readers. Other books have great content and are written for the masses. This book, to it’s credit, falls in the later category. I look forward to recommending it to several people and continue to look forward to more work from Crouch in the future.

I finished reading this book about ten minutes ago and I am already making a list of people I am going to recommend go buy it and read it.At the heart of this book is an exploration of the tension of the need for both authority (the ability to act meaningfully) and vulnerability (an exposure to true risk and loss) for an experience of flourishing in our lives. I found this paradigm thought provoking and helpful as I considered my own struggle for spiritual growth and increasing vibrancy in my spiritual life. It was also insightful for understanding some of the social and racial tension we walk in daily.I picked up this book because I loved Crouch’s book Culture Making. This book is less academic and more personal, but no less insightful. This is not a Christian self-help book. It is something much better. It is a fresh and vibrant look at the the power of the gospel - the good news that we can flourish, and help others flourish, by growing in our experience authority and vulnerability.With books I like, I will go back and hand copy all the portions I highlighted into my notebook for further reflection. I only do this with book worthy of the extra reflection - and this one is well worth it.I highly recommend it.

Crouch writes, "This book is my long overdue answer to that student." The student was from Harvard, part of the Christian ministry Crouch served in, and had questioned Crouch's conception of Christian discipleship as solely one of "downward mobility," where the use of social location, personal power and experience would all combine to serve the materially and spiritually poor. Oh: and the Harvard student is African American, one who was commissioned by his church to acquire social location, personal power and experience to serve his community: but, not to return inside a nonprofit ministry: and the question to Crouch was why was this conception supposed to supersede the call and commission to discipleship he received from his church? Both conceptions address matters of human flourishing for anyone who would identify as a Christian.Crouch does a fine job of crafting a vision of human flourishing as negotiating human realities of authority and vulnerability. Crouch has great prose, and the entire book is full of anecdotes that contribute to a fine exposition on flourishing. There are several vignettes of men and women who are not white, and that contributes to a more rounded concept of flourishing. I might have wanted for him to make matters of ethnicity and justice more explicit and have a greater prominence, but that would not be Crouch's oeuvre.For the more theologically inclined reader, this book hosts a largely tacit sense of Christology and mission. There are several citations of the NT, but no dedicated chapter to the person of Jesus and his mission, and how both shape Crouch's concept of human flourishing. Again: it's largely tacit, and could be tested and trusted. More on this in a momentIf I had one negative criticism of the book, it would be the following. In discussion of flourishing as a function of authority, there's this: "Authority requires that our action be meaningful, not just willy-nilly activity...What makes action meaningful? Above all, meaningful action participates in a story...Meaningful action...takes place in the midst of a story...The capacity for meaningful action is not something we possess on our own. It is something that others confer on us. Without being given countless gifts—language, nurture, of love—by those who cared for us in our infancy and our childhood, none of us would have the capacity to act meaningfully in the world." (35-37)I'm not sure that a 3rd-person account of my actions can ever determine or judge the meaningfulness of my activity Furthermore, while I am attracted to the notion of agency participating in a larger narrative of significance, I find myself in sympathy with African American student from Harvard: Whose story is this? Finally, and please, I tread lightly here: I wonder how this account of a human person can square with the life of his beloved niece. This weight that so many Christian pastors, authors, and academics place upon language, making acquisition constitutional of our humanity, while simultaneously insisting the importance of our person is a function of what society communicates to us continues to crush Christians near and far. Don't misunderstand: I'm far from suggesting the other end of the spectrum, in which we are teflon-like in our activities. I would prefer to recognize that we have desires and actions that spring from both what matters most to us as well as our developed experience in the world that includes non-linguistic knowledge. Not everything about our humanity and our human flourishing requires language.You can take a clever quiz on human flourishing developed by the publisher here :[...]Finally, this is an easy, but challenging read. The implications for confident, yet fallible engagement with the world in Crouch's conception of human flourishing proposes an attractive, rugged form of mission for Christians.

This was one of my favorite books that I read in 2017 in inspiration/self-help read genre. Andy Crouch's take on what it means to live as people who flourish, rings true. I'm seeing examples of authority, withdrawal, flourishing, and suffering/vulnerability all around and I always think about what Andy taught in this book. When I see people flourishing despite their vulnerability, I know they have found something beautiful. This is a quick read that will challenge you to think about how God has made you to live in this world. Yes, the world and the people in the world are broken, but there is hope. Strong and Weak is a great companion book for the journey toward living a life of true flourishing.

I began reading this book with considerable anticipation because I am familiar with Andy Crouch's insights from reading some of his shorter writings in magazines and online from time to time, and because the editorial reviews and customer reviews on amazon.com were generally so glowing. The theme of this book is that that the life of flourishing involves not just meaningful acts (what Crouch calls "authority,"), performed in situations of risk or unpredictability ("vulnerability"). This is the core of Christian discipleship. If we strive to live in obedience to Christ and desire to be responsive to His leading, then everything we do is a meaningful act, the outcome of which we very often do not see. Crouch relates many stories which illustrate this principle powerfully.That being said, even after a careful re-reading the book, I have not been able to shake the feeling that the author's attempt to force what he has to say into into a 2 x 2 grid with dimensions of "authority" and "vulnerability" unconvincing and often unhelpful. I am uneasy in saying this, since it seems to differ with the many editorial reviewers who have much greater authority and experience on the subject than I, not to mention the dozens of customers who describe the book in thoroughly superlative terms (on amazon.com -- Canadians reviewing on amazon.ca are, as usual, much more reserved!). This obviously puts me in a situation of some vulnerability! However, I think the 2 x 2 grid based on "authority" and/or "vulnerability" only works here because the author uses both words to mean a variety of quite different things in different situations. Authority is sometimes something conferred on a person, sometimes something a person attempts to exercise on their own. Vulnerability is sometimes something a person confers on those around, sometimes something imposed by those around, sometimes a burden and sometimes transparency. So, in describing the four quadrants of the grid as the characteristics of flourishing (conferred authority and transparent vulnerability are good), suffering (imposed vulnerability as oppression without conferred authority is bad), withdrawing (exercising more authority and vulnerability as transparency would be good), and exploiting (exercising authority is bad without accepted vulnerability) illustrates to me how awkward the words "authority" and "vulnerability" by themselves are in general here. The grid illustration may give the false implication that the way to fix our lack of flourishing is to make an effort to get/give up authority, display/eliminate vulnerability in some appropriate ratio, when in fact (as Crouch's stories often powerfully illustrate), the real answer is as stated above, to live in intentional response to Christ's leading (instead of following our own desires) and relying on His strength (rather than trying to cope on our own) in every situation we find ourselves.I had the greatest difficulty dealing with chapter 6 ("Hidden Vulnerability") which comes close to counseling the very superficiality that so much of the rest of the book speaks against by equivocating on vulnerability as a burden and vulnerability as transparency.This is a different sort of quibble. The book has endnotes, but they are not referenced in the text of the book itself on my kindle, but rather each endnote is labeled by the phrase and page number to which it refers. This style of endnote is not too troublesome in paper editions of a book, but very problematic in an ebook where page numbers are ambiguous and flipping between locations more difficult, I find. Crouch's arguments may be clearer if one is able to easily coordinate endnote material with the text as you read.All that being said, this book is worth reading, because whether you find Crouch's authority/vulnerability grid helpful or not, the illustrations he relates are very thought provoking illustrations of the flourishing Christian life. I've given this book a rating of five stars because it did what a five-star book should do -- it engaged me to the extent that I've already read the book right through twice and some sections many times, and made me think much more deeply than I have in a long time about what it means to flourish as a Christian (and will continue to do so, because I'm still bugged by how different my reaction to the book is from so many of the rest of you out there -- what am I missing? -- and the book also reminded me how easy it is to slide into complacency as a believer in the developed world), and that is the best we can get from a book.

While the concept presented at the start is interesting, the applications shared in later chapters get better and better! An amazing read worth every moment.

for personal development in generalfor engaging in the fight for social justicefor leadershipfor preachers and teachersand possibly much more

In this short book, Andy Crouch proposes that true human flourishing comes when we live with both vulnerability and authority. He dives into principles for healthy leadership and general principles for relating to others in a healthy way. Well worth the read.

This book has shed light on our human condition and takes you thru the "how can we be better".How to recognize where our strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to our authority and vulnerability. Achieving balance is possible through authentic living, healthy introspection, and a genuine love for those around us.