Overcoming Fear - Resources

 

Here are some blog posts I have made, on overcoming fear.

https://www.johnpiippo.com/2018/08/fear.html

https://www.johnpiippo.com/2022/06/31-declarations-that-defeat-fear.html

https://www.johnpiippo.com/2010/03/trust-as-cure-for-anxiety-fear.html

https://www.johnpiippo.com/2020/03/overcoming-fear-two-sermons.html

https://www.johnpiippo.com/2021/01/overcoming-fearfulness.html?m=0

https://www.johnpiippo.com/2018/05/remembering-as-cure-for-fear.html

https://www.johnpiippo.com/2020/03/fear-cannot-survive-in-atmosphere-of.html

https://www.johnpiippo.com/2020/07/to-defeat-fear-grow.html

https://www.johnpiippo.com/2020/08/overcoming-fear-of-unknown.html

The Difference Between Anxiety and Fear

 

                                               (Downy Woodpecker in our back yard - anxiety-free.)

"What Is Anxiety? 

Anxiety is related to fear, but is not the same thing. The diagnostic manual of psychiatry (DSM-5-TR) defines fear as “the emotional response to real or perceived imminent threat, whereas anxiety is anticipation of future threat.” Both can be healthy responses to reality, but when excessive, they can become disorders."

Haidt, Jonathan. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (pp. 26-27). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

An Epidemic of Mental Illness In Our Children

 

Johnathan Haidt is perhaps my favorite culture analyst. His books The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, and The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (with Greg Lukionoff), are required reading.

Haidt is like Kierkegaard, but with data.

His new book came out today - The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing a Epidemic of Mental Illness. I purchased it for my Kindle, and am reading.

See Saturday's article on Haidt in the New York Times. 

Easter Week - Jesus Brings In a Love Revolution

(Jerusalem)

TUESDAY, MARCH 26

During Easter Week, 2,000 years ago, Jesus was doing and saying Messianic, Kingly things in the city of Jerusalem. Tensions around Him were escalating, and would eventually lead to His crucifixion.

Certain Jewish religious leaders were confronting Jesus. In Matthew 22:34-40 some of the rules-righteousness Pharisees, who are angry about Jesus and His failure to abide by all the religious rules they have accumulated, address Him with The Big Question. Here are two translations of that text. Only one of them is accurate.


SCRIPTURE READING - MATTHEW 22:34-40 - TWO VERSIONS

Version 1:

³⁴ Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 
³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Turn off your cell phone." ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Turn off your neighbor's cell phone as your own.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Version 2:

³⁴ Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 
³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two 
commandments.”



WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THESE VERSES?

The correct translation, from the original Greek text (which, BTW, and contra KJV-only worshipers, we are very close to having), is Version 2. Version 1 is false for the following reasons:

1.             There were no cell phones in the first century.

2.             Even if there were cell phones in the first century Jesus would not have needed one, since the Father in Him knows the hearts and minds of people.

3.             Version 1 is too legalistic-Pharisaic sounding. Jesus would never have said such a thing; i.e., Jesus would never have singled out a human-made unwritten rule as the greatest rule of all.

4.             Jesus wouldn't turn and give someone the evil eye if, while He was speaking, their cell phone went off.

Behind the Pharisees' question and Jesus' response lies the ongoing "Sabbath Controversies." I'm going to illustrate this by using an example that happened to me recently.

I was driving in downtown Monroe, stopped at a light, when a car pulled up behind me. The driver appeared angry - at me! He honked his horn, drove next to me, and gave me "The Look." It was not the look of love. Something about my driving had not been pleasing to him. I have no idea what it was. But I knew that, in his mind, I had violated one of his rules of driving. As a result I received The Look, not of love, but of condemnation.

"The Look" is what happens in a rule-governed world, where following a set of rules is the means of acceptance and social righteousness. The prevailing mood is judgment and condemnation, because rules get transgressed. While it is polite to silence my cell phone in a Sunday morning worship service, it is not a Jesus-thing to give someone The Look when their phone goes off. Because love is patient, love is kind, love is not easily angered, and love keeps no record of wrongs.

Jesus was constantly breaking religious rules. In Mark 2:22-28 some rule-watching Pharisees address Jesus about the behavior of His disciples on the Sabbath. Contrary to Exodus 16:25-26, which rules out gleaning and plucking grain on the Sabbath, Jesus allows His disciples to do so. For this he gets "The Look."

Jesus' response is to reinterpret the Exodus passage, placing it in the greater context of God's overall purposes for humanity. Ben Witherington writes: "Jesus' point of view seems to be that human beings do not exist for the sake of the law, but rather the converse. The function of the Sabbath is to restore and renew creation to its full capacity, just as leaving the land fallow for a sabbatical year might do. The disciples' eating was a means of renewal and restoration for them. Thus, they should be permitted to eat, even at the expense of specific, clear prohibitions in the law. In short, Jesus sees it as part of his mission to interpret matters according to their true or original intention, no longer making allowances for the hardness of human hearts." (Ben Witherington, The Christology of Jesus, 68)

If the love of God was abundantly poured into my heart (Romans 5:5) I would not need rules like "You shall not steal," or "You shall not commit adultery." That's why Jesus said that all the Law and prophets hand on the two Love-Commandments.

Jesus' revolution is, essentially, a Love Revolution. He was bringing in a love and grace environment, rather than a rules-environment. That's why Paul wrote, in Romans 5:2, that "we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand." "Gained access" is Temple language; meaning we who trust in Christ are ushered into the fields of God's grace.

Love, not law, wins. Mercy triumphs over judgment. (James 2:13)

REFLECTION

1. Thinking of Romans 5:5, ask God for a fresh outpouring, a fresh deluge, a "rainstorm" of God's love to be poured into your heart today.

For My Former students of Payne Theological Seminary

 

What a privilege for me to have taught at one of the nation's oldest black theological seminaries, Payne Theological Seminary 

Here are some of my Payne spiritual formation classes.

And, if you are interested, click the link below to see books that have helped me understand black spirituality. 

African, and African-American Spirituality: A Select Bibliography

Here are some of my former classes - blessings to you all!

My Psalm 23 Praying Exercise

 

This is the handout I have been giving to pastoral leaders and seminary students over the past 40+ years.

If you want me to send you the file - johnpiippo@msn.com.

Easter Week - The Cursing of the Fig Tree Is Really About the End of the Temple

 

(Woman praying in Jerusalem)

MONDAY, MARCH 25

This is Easter Week - the days leading up to Good Friday and the cross. After Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to the shouts of "Save us now!" ("Hosanna!"), he did some radical and revealing things in the city. One of them was His "cursing of the fig tree."

SCRIPTURE READING - MATTHEW 21:18-22

¹⁸ Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry.¹⁹ Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!”Immediately the tree withered. 
²⁰ When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked. 
²¹ Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. ²² If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THESE VERSES?

Jesus and his disciples are walking up Mount Zion, upon which Jerusalem is seated. On top of the mountain is the Temple. The Temple was in full view as they ascended. It's probable that the fig tree was higher up on the road, between Jesus and the Temple. As they walk to the Temple, Jesus see the fig tree ahead.

As He points to the fig tree, he is really pointing to the Temple. The barrenness of the fig tree is a visual analogy for the barrenness of the presence of God within the Temple. God is no longer showing up in the Temple. The religious leaders, instead of welcoming God's presence and introducing people to that presence, shut the door of heaven in people's faces and themeselves do not enter in. (Matthew 23:13) Their "religion" was rule-based and filled with self-centered pride.  Nothing worse could be said of a religious leader; viz., that they do their religious thing and bar God from the activities.

In the case of the Temple, God himself exited. How sad and worthless this is, since what people need is God and His manifest "with-us" presence.

When Jesus curses the barren fig tree and talks about "this mountain" being thrown into the sea, he's not referring to just any mountain, but to Mount Zion. Some people talk about a faith that can move mountains and use this passage as an example, but Jesus was really talking about a new kind of faith that would exist without the Temple. The Temple, where God had showed up for hundreds of years, was going down, never to be inhabited by God again. The day was near when true worship will not happen on this mountain or any mountain. Thus, "this mountain" (Mt Zion) can be cast into the sea.

Later, as Jesus and his disciples are walking down Mount Zion from the Temple area, his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. ² “Do you see all these things?” he asked.“Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” (Matthew 24:1-2)

With the Temple now God-less, where will God manifest Himself? The answer, as the disciples will realize on the Day of Pentecost, is that the dwelling place of God will be in His people, both individually and corporately. The great, revolutionary new truth of Jesus in this story is that if you are a Jesus-follower then you are a temple of the presence of God. You are, as Richard Foster has written, a "portable sanctuary."

You host the presence of God.

REFLECTION

1. Consider ways in which you will welcome God's presence in your life today, ways in which you will welcome his presence.

Palm Sunday - Jesus Comes to "Hosanna" Us

In Jerusalem

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Easter week. For those of us who are Jesus-followers, this is the turning point of human history, the fulcrum that tilts the universe from darkness to light.

We read about that first Palm Sunday in Mark 1:1-11, and Matthew 21:4-5.

1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.' "

[Matthew 21:4-5 adds these verses:
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
 5 "Say to the Daughter of Zion,
      'See, your king comes to you,
   gentle and riding on a donkey,
      on a colt, the foal of a donkey.' " ]

Back to Mark... 

4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, "What are you doing, untying that colt?" 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 
9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
   "Hosanna!"
   "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
 10 "Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!"
   "Hosanna in the highest!" 


WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THESE VERSES?

When the people saw Jesus, and began shouting “Hosanna!,” they were calling out to Jesus, “Save us!” 

“Rescue us!” 

Hosanna is a Hebrew word (hoshi`ah-na) that had become a greeting or shout of praise, but actually meant "Save!" or "Help!" Not surprisingly, forms of this word were used to address the king with a need (cf. 2 Sam 14:4; 2 Kings 6:26). The palm branches are symbolic of a victorious ruler. 

"Hosanna" has the sense of immediacy. It would be correct to translate it as, "Please save us, and do it now!"

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey (rather than a stallion), in his upside-down Kingdom way, desperation was in the air. The Jewish citizens were under the heavy yoke of the Roman Empire. They had heard about Jesus. Rumor was that he claimed to be a king. Even, the Messiah. When word got out that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem, he was greeted as a king. 

There were shouts of “Blessed is the King of Israel!” Clearly,  the people saw in Jesus the answer to their nationalistic, messianic hopes. 

Earlier, a crowd had wanted to make Jesus king (6:15). Now, this gathering was recognizing him as king, in the city of the great King. Here was the great dream of a Davidic ruler who would come and liberate Israel, establish peace, and subdue the Gentiles

The way Jesus entered Jerusalem was a deliberate, prophetic “Zechariah 9:9 act.” Zech. 9:9 reads: Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt. 

Jesus enters Jerusalem in a kingly way, and the people respond in a kingly fashion. The imagery is regal, even messianic, though this is a humble Messiah. As the people spread their garments (NIV: their cloaks) on the road, a "red carpet" of sorts is produced. 

He has come to rescue them. They people were about to be "hosanna-ed." But it was not going to happen as they imagined. Because Jesus is a different kind of king. He will "hosanna" the world by dying on a cross.

The meaning Jesus attaches to his triumphal entry is different from the peoples' expectations. N.T. Wright says, "That, perhaps, is where we can learn the most from this tory today."
People often turn to God when there’s something they want, and they want it to look a certain way. Here, in our Palm Sunday story, everyone wants Jesus to ride into the city and be the kind of king they say he ought to be. “Help!” “Save the life of my sick child!” “Pay my bills!” “Give us peace, now!”

Jesus does intend to respond to the people’s cries. He has come to seek and save the lost. He has come for people who need help. He will be there for people who are sick and need a doctor. But he is not coming to be all things to all people. He is not riding into Jerusalem to conform to the expectations of the crowds. He is going to answer, in his own way.

The people wanted a prophet. This prophet, Jesus, will tell the people they are under coming judgment. 

They wanted a Messiah. This one is going to be enthroned on a pagan cross. 

The crowds wanted to be rescued from evil and oppression. Jesus is going to do that, but in a far, far deeper way than they could envision.

Jesus is going beneath surface evil, into the depths of the human heart. N.T. Wright says: “Precisely because Jesus says ‘yes’ to their desires at the deepest level, he will have to say ‘no’ or ‘wait’ to the desires they are conscious of, and expressed.” (NTW, Matt, 68)

Once you cry out “Hosanna,” Jesus will “hosanna” you more thoroughly than you imagine, more deeply than you wanted. The hosanna-ing Jesus brings is not just a band aid. On Palm Sunday we are given “an object lesson in the mismatch between our expectations and God’s answer.” (NTW, Matthew, 69)

The bad news is that the crowds are going to be disappointed. The good news is that their disappointment is on a surface, shallow level. “Deep down, Jesus’ arrival at the great city is indeed the moment when salvation is dawning… The “Hosannas” were justified… they were correct…. but not for the reasons they supposed. To learn this lesson is to take a large step towards wisdom and humility, and towards genuine Christian faith.” (NTW, Matt, 69)

REFLECTION

1. If you are a Jesus-follower, you have been hosanna-ed. You called. He answered. He came to your rescue. Think of how God has become your Rescuer. Make a list of things he has hosanna-ed you from. Carry it with you, and give God thanks.

2. Christ has not stopped loving you. He remains your Redeemer, your Rescuer. If there is an area in your life that needs hosanna-ing, identify it, and cry out to him in prayer.

***
My first two books are...

Praying: Reflection on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God (May 2016)

Leading the Presence-Driven Church (January 2018)

Less of Self, More of Jesus

(Staircase, University of Michigan)

One theme in my spiritual life is the diminishing of self so as to gain Christ. God has told me, "John, learn the joy of living in the background."

It happened recently at Redeemer, as we were worshiping. We were singing "From the Inside Out." One of the lines talks about "the art of losing myself." I pulled out a 3X5 card and wrote those words down.  And added: This is it, the key to whatever Christ-effectiveness I shall have in this life.

Theistic philosopher Roger Scruton, in The Soul of the World, writes:

"If there is anything that could be called progress in the religious history of mankind, it resides in the gradual preference for the self over the other as the primary sacrificial victim. It is precisely in this that the Christian religion rests its moral claim." (Scruton, 2)

I pick up my journal. I'm looking for what God told me a few weeks ago. "Be content to stay in the background. Prepare for how I will use you in the end."

This is good, because a sign of progress in spiritual formation is growing self-recession. God will gift me with a ministry of absence.

In the spiritual life smaller is better. This allows God to be larger, and magnified, and glorified. 

Examine Yourself Before You Examine Others

(Monroe)

How far do I want to follow Jesus?

As one of his disciples, my starting place is not to condemn and critique others. Rather, I am to look in the mirror and examine myself. I am to cry out, "Search me, Oh God, and know my heart!"

I have enough stuff to occupy my inner searching for a lifetime. 

As Jesus said:

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Matthew 7:3-5

This is wise, beautiful counsel. I can share, from my own experience, that it is hard being the judge of all people. It has kept me awake at times. It has made me angry. If affects how I view others. When entertained, the captive audience becomes bitter. 

Lisa Bevere once wrote that she probably had enough planks in her eyes to build an entertainment center. (Lisa Bevere, The True Measure of a Woman, p. 32)

It's demolition day, and I am a plank-remover.

Only then will my self-righteousness be gone, and, aided by the Spirit, accompanied by compassion and caring love, I might be used of God to engage in the delicate task of speck-removal.

You Are a Reconciler, Not an Enabler or a Divider

(Green Lake Conference Center, Wisconsin)

In 2 Corinthians 5 we learn the following.

• When a person gets saved they become a new creation.
• As a new creation, they no longer live narcissistic lives for themselves, but they live for Jesus.
• As a new creation they no longer view people "according to the flesh" (kata sarka), but "according to the Spirit" (kata pneuma).
• We see people, all of them, as either reconciled to God, or not reconciled to God.
• New creations are burdened by this. They "implore" ("beg) people to be reconciled to God.
• God gives new creations a "ministry of reconciliation." In this, we are "ambassadors for Christ."

If you are a Jesus-follower, you have a ministry of reconciliation. You bring people to God, and bring people to one another. You are a reconciler, not a divider. Any fool can divide; blessed and few are the peacemakers. 

The apostle Paul wrote: 

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

God reconciled you, through Christ, to himself. God did not count your sins against you. God did not look at you and the mess you made of life and say, "Nothing good can ever come from this person." You have the message that God did not treat us this way. You are to share this with others. This is Good News.

Because of this basic, core message of Real Christianity, Linda and I labor to reconcile husbands and wives in failing marriages. We have a ministry of reconciliation, just like you. Un-ity, not di-vorce, is the God-thing. 

Tap into God's creative, restorative, reconciling abilities to unite people. God can work, through you, to dissolve disparity between people. 

Abide in Him, and receive His empowering for a peace unlike this world dishes out. 

Do not assist division. Reconcilers refuse to enable dysfunction and sin. Have nothing to do with tearing marriages and families and friends asunder. 

Refuse to entertain words like "This marriage will never make it," or "We could never be friends again," or "Nothing good can ever come out of these people." (Warning: as you refuse to enable sin, the enablee may be outraged because, from their egocentric viewpoint, you are not "helping" them. They may accuse you of not following Jesus, as if Jesus assists people on the road to destruction. The enablee may dishonor you and, in their blindness, view you as trying to control them. How absurd! Yet Linda and I have experienced this.)

Your core belief is: God is able to reconcile. 

You know this is true, for He reconciled you, to Him, and to others. 

The idea is: If two people follow Jesus, and are "in him," they will come together since, in Christ, divisive relationships are nonexistent. 

View things this way. Think community, not individuality.

If you are a Jesus-follower, you are a gatherer, not a scatterer.

You assist people on the road to life, rather then enable people on the path of relational dis-ease. 

You are someone who brings people to God, and brings people together.

This is dynamic, far more so than those dark, mediocre voices of relational failure that enumerate sins against people and give up on them. 

Eugene Peterson - This Video Restores Pastoral Sanity

Pastors and Christian leaders - I watch this video 4-5 times a year, to regain perspective. 

Dr. John Piippo - How God Changes the Human Heart

To Experience God’s Presence, Abide in Christ

(Pear tree in my neighbor's back yard.)

This is from my book Leading the Presence-Driven Church.

***
We have an old pear tree in our back yard. As I bite into one of these pears I tell Linda, “This is the fruit of the gods!” The pears grow on the branches. The branches are attached to the trunk of the tree. This connection allows the nutrients of the trunk to flow into the branches. To produce pears, the branch just needs to stay connected. It needs to remain, or abide, in the trunk of the tree. 

To be, in the present moment, attached to Jesus is to abide in him. The word can be translated “to remain,” or “to dwell.” 

To dwell is to truly be with someone. “Abide” is an experiential word, describing a lingering, slow-cooked, togetherness. 

The Greek word is menon. It has the sense of tarrying, hanging around, “to be kept continually.” Menon is a kairos word. It connotes, “Slow down, spend the day with me. Kick off your shoes. Here’s a cup of coffee. Let’s recline in the fireplace room, and be together.” 

Menon is a being-word, more than a doing-word. It is a presence word. Menon is active, alert, focused, and engaged. It has the thickness and intensity of a lover, with their beloved. To abide with someone is to full-being be with them, interact with them, and meet with them. It is to hang out together, with cell phones off and stowed away.

Character Vs. Reputation

 

    (Sunrise in the park, across the street from our house.)

I have seen websites advertising ways to clean up your reputation. You may have an online reputation that is less than marketable. These websites promise to sanctify "you" by removing your sins (real or rumored) and producing a shiny, sparkling, attractive "you." This is called "reputation

 management." I kid you not.

Your sordid reputation can be manipulated, for a cost. But what about your character?

Money cannot help you here. Your reputation, which money can airbrush, is not your character. Your character is about the real "you." Money cannot change that unless, perhaps, you begin sacrificially, and from a heart of compassion, giving it away to the poor. 

The real "you" includes who you are when offline. This is what God cares about. God develops character, not reputation.  

Everyone has a reputation. Jesus did. Isn't he just the "carpenter's son?" "He's from Nazareth, right?" 

Reputation may align with character. You may have a reputation of being a kind person. If you are kind, in character, which means kind at home, kind on the road, kind in the workplace, kind to your spouse, kind when alone, then your reputation of being kind aligns with who you truly are.

Several years ago I was one of the presenters at an ecumenical prayer gathering. As I entered the auditorium a Roman Catholic leader approached me. He said he was surprised to see me here, because he had heard that I hate Roman Catholics. I told him that was untrue. I shared how one of our city's priests, with whom I was friends, had invited me to speak at the annual Unity Service. I have no idea where he got that from. Such is the nature of "reputation."

Forget about what people repute you to be. Focus on connecting to Jesus, who is forming himself in you. Grow and mature into Christ. Let God take care of whatever follows.

An Epidemic of Childhood Mental Illness

 

I am a Johnathan Haidt fan. 

Haidt's The Coddling of the American Mind is one of the most important books I have read in the past ten years.

His new book comes out March 26. I'll be reading it, immediately, with anticipation. 

Look at the blurb on the book, plus some reviews.

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood 

Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on most measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood” began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood” has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems” that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.

Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Jonathan Haidt is a modern-day prophet, disguised as a psychologist. In this book, he’s back to warn us of the dangers of a phone-based childhood. He points the way forward to a brighter, stronger future for us all.” —Susan Cain, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Bittersweet and Quiet

“An urgent and provocative read on why so many kids are not okay—and how to course correct. Jonathan Haidt makes a powerful case that the shift from play-based to phone-based childhoods is wreaking havoc on mental health and social development. Even if you’re not ready to ban smartphones until high school, this book will challenge you to rethink how we nurture the potential in our kids and prepare them for the world.” —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Potential and Think Again, and host of the TED podcast Re:Thinking

“This is a crucial read for parents of children of elementary school age and beyond, who face the rapidly changing landscape of childhood. Haidt lays out problems but also solutions for making a better digital life with kids.” —Emily Oster, New York Times bestselling author of Expecting Better

“Every single parent needs to stop what they are doing and read this book immediately. Jonathan Haidt is the most important psychologist in the world today, and this is the most important book on the topic that’s reshaping your child’s life right now.” —Johann Hari, author of Stolen Focus

“This book poses a challenge that will determine the shape of the rest of the century. Jonathan Haidt shows us how we’ve arrived at this point of crisis with technology and the next generation. This book does not merely stand athwart the iPhone yelling ‘Stop!’ Haidt provides research-tested yet practical counsel for parents, communities, houses of worship, and governments about how things could be different. I plan to give this book to as many people as I can, while praying that we all have the wisdom to ponder and then to act.” —Russell Moore, editor in chief of Christianity Today