Good and Angry: Redeeming Anger, Irritation, Complaining, and Bitterness

David Powlison’s Good and Angry is a powerful book. In the book Powlison dives deep into what anger is and then gets very practical about how to biblically deal with your own anger issues (issues, he assures us, we all have).From the outset, Powlison makes it clear that anger, while dangerous, can be handled to produce good. “At its core anger is very simple,” Powlison says, “It expresses ‘I’m against that’” (39). Powlison says that each of us handles anger differently. Some of us freeze over, some of us quietly brood, some of us simmer, some of us explode. Powlison encourages us not to look at the way others mismanage worse than us, but rather, how do we mismanage anger? Each type has their own blind spots.Powlison then dives into anger itself. Anger is about our displeasure toward something, so what are we displeased with? And why? How are we justified? Unjustified in our anger? And what do I want to happen? Anger is physiological. As embodied beings, anger manifests itself in us physiologically. How is it impacting me when I’m angry?Powlison then dives into mercy, what he calls a constructive displeasure, or constructive anger. When the constructive displeasure of mercy is functioning as it ought, it has four characteristics: patience (a wonderful biblical synonym of patience is “forbearance”), forgiveness (which is “mercifully unfair” (80)), charity (a spirit of magnanimity), and constructive conflict (“Mercy is not a free pass. It is an invitation to turn and repent” (94). All of these fundamentally point to the work of God and his righteous response of anger to our rebellion. “The constructive displeasure of mercy means the redemption of the world” (102). Powlison walks through how God’s anger works: through his righteous and holy response to our sin, to him taking his wrath upon his son on the cross. He concludes, “God’s wrath is your hope. God’s wrath is my hope. We don’t often hear that, but it appears everywhere in the Bible. Wrath is our hope because love masters anger” (121).The final portion of the book steps back and helps us move through analyzing our own anger. Powlison uses James 4:1-12 to help us analyze our own anger issues. At the heart of this analysis is James’s own analysis of his hearer, that they are fighting and quarrelling because of their “desires that battle within” them. In other words, if we have an anger problem (which we all do), we have a malformed desire problem. In other words, we have a heart problem. Significant in digging into this question is the ability to analyze my own motives. The issue isn’t what has happened with me, but is my heart and my heart’s motives and desires in the midst of any given situation. Key questions to ask myself when in a moment of anger are: “what do I want?” “what do I fear?” and “what do I most love?” (154-55).Powlison concludes with a strong word of hope. God is in the process of changing us and reshaping our heart. Our problem, Powlison says, is that we tend to talk to the wrong person in the midst of our anger – ourselves. But when we turn and talk to our Good Shepherd, we will experience hope and change.I’m so grateful for Powlison's Good and Angry. It is a profoundly biblical and wise book with both subtle and profound insights. I know I have been impacted by the book personally and will both turn to it in the future for personal use and as a resource for others who struggle with anger.

This is an almost surgical approach to anger. I’ve never read anything like it. Part of me says of course there’s a counseling approach to anger. But another part of me says I had no idea that anger could be dissected with such precision. There is a ton of great theology. There is also clear practical application. In my estimation, it is a very balanced presentation of anger. It was a slightly difficult read, but only because I wanted to process it well, and consider how I might apply it to my own life.

Very insightful, well thought out, honest, Scripture is not an after thought but the source of freedom. He spoke the word an it convicted me. I totally suggest every pastor to read this.

I read this book over the course of three months; it was not hard to get through but other books had to be read first because of library due dates and without intent, it kept getting pushed lower on my priority read list. I finally got back to it earlier this week and finished up the remaining chapters. After reading it, I have a better understanding of anger through a Christian perspective. Author David Powlinson is a counselor so he brings with him expertise in working with people who have suffered bad things. Unlike some counselors who give guidance without the Scripture, Powlinson incorporates God and His love in each chapter since God is the ultimate source of freeing us from the burden of anger and the other emotions that accompany anger. The book is broken down into four sections: Our Experience, What is Anger?, How to Change, and Tackling the Hard Cases.Everyone is plagued by anger of different intensities and gets angry for different reasons and everyone deals with it in different ways, yet we are all the same in that we need to face our anger and seek God’s guidance so we may handle our anger in a constructive and positive way that glorifies Him. That is why I recommend this book to everyone, especially those who may be going through a hardship in life that makes them angry. I did not agree with everything Powlinson said or may not have understood where he was coming from on some things, but I still think he did a great job writing a book on a massive and complicated subject.

This book has been such a blessing. I definitely recommend it to everyone!

A very good look at how anger can be used for good and how to help you deal with bad anger responses. Excellent book!

Un buen libro de consejeria.

In "Good and Angry," David Powlison delves into the topic of anger and how this emotion can be used for God’s glory. Powlison spends several chapters early in the book discussing what anger is and how anger quickly descends into sinful behaviour in our daily interactions. The author asserts that the root of anger lies in our self-seeking ambitions and fleshly desires. The author uses the example of trying to rush to a doctor’s appointment amid a traffic jam as a classic example of how our anger stems from elevating our own needs over the needs of others. Powlison suggests an eight-step process for thinking through one’s situation when feelings of irritableness begin to surface. When we develop a habit of carefully considering our motives and thoughts in these tense moments, we grow in awareness of our own sinfulness and begin the process of subjecting our anger to God. Another critical point that Powlison states is that the best example of good anger can be found in God’s anger as displayed in the Bible. We often try to shy away from Scriptural texts that speak of God’s anger as we are uncomfortable in trying to reconcile His love and anger at the same time. However, Powlison points out that only God can perfectly exhibit anger in a holy, loving manner. Christians need not become emotionless robots when faced with matters of injustice and immorality. Rather, we need to use our Bible and the Holy Spirit’s guidance to harness angry thoughts to be subjected to God’s sovereignty much like how many of the psalmists illustrate in Psalms. The last few chapters address specific questions about anger such as how to deal with deep-seated anger and anger at oneself.I emphatically recommend this book to everyone who wants to gain a biblical perspective on anger. Based on his extensive counselling experience, Powlison’s treatment of the topic is well-balanced and intriguing. We may think that the stoic Christian has no anger issues at all but Powlison alerts us that displaying no signs of unease when encountering blatant injustice is equally troubling. The author reminds us that anger is not neutral but veer towards good or evil depending on whether we subject our circumstances to God and allow Him to lead us to greater holiness or choose to do whatever is right in our own eyes. Moreover, we need to develop a healthy biblically-informed conscience that steers us towards taking appropriate actions that both glorifies God and loves those around us. Instead of trying to control our angry feelings with our own methods, let us submit our anger to God and allow Him to transform us so that our anger is no longer self-seeking but reflects His holy character.

This was a very helpful book - its easy to read but really gets to the core issues. The title 'Good and Angry' sums up the book well as the argument is that anger when done well is a constructive and a merciful response to wrong. Its just that most of anger isn't that - it becomes destructive and multiplies the wrong that its meant to be responding to. The questions he gives to breakdown the motivations behind anger are very effective - its tempting to just skip these and move on but working through these is a real eye opener and well worth it.Another real strength of the book is how multi-faceted it is. It looks at a whole range of different ways that anger manifests itself: along with the classic outbursts and rage there are much more subtle issues like complaining/grumbling, shame, not being angry about wrongs. Looking at anger from these different angles gave me a greater appreciation for the complexity of how I deal with anger in these different ways.

This book not only spoke to my deepest questions and struggles with anger but led me beyond this to God. It is amazingly practical, insightful, personal and rigorous at the same time. More like five books than one.