Book Review: Strong and Weak

This book review was included in the April 2019 Meadowcroft Monthly. For an archive of all book reviews, click here.

One of my favorite books from the last few years is Strong and Weak by Andy Crouch. Crouch is one of the best Christian authors of our day - provocative, thoughtful and orthodox. In this book, Crouch explores what it looks like to truly flourish as human beings - and it does not always look as we expect it to.

The main point of Crouch’s book is that we flourish as we begin to embrace both vulnerability and authority. He helpfully illustrates this with a chart of four quadrants (pictured to the right). To be vulnerable without authority leads to suffering. To stay away from both authority and vulnerability leads to withdrawing. To exercise authority without vulnerability leads to exploiting (this is the preferred quadrant for those with an idol of control, like me.) True flourishing only happens in the upper right quadrant, the intersection of high authority and high vulnerability.

Crouch’s work can be helpful in causing us to think which situation we are currently in. And while not everyone can simply take steps to move “up and to the right,” many of us can. And the good news is that as we move towards flourishing, we can actually help those in the bottom right quadrant of suffering.

Strong and Weak speaks with conviction into the condition of affluence that many suburban Americans find themselves in. He says -

We have a saying in our family: The only thing money can buy is bubble wrap. Affluence cannot ultimately remove the vulnerability that is our human condition and our true human calling, but it can swaddle you in so many layers of insulation that you will never be able to fully feel it—or to freely move. It can keep you swaddled far beyond your tender years, well into an adulthood of risk-averse entitlement.

Crouch is really unpacking the very Biblical idea that we only find our lives by losing them. I highly recommend this book, especially for those facing larger decisions in life. It is good for us to ask which decision will move us “up and to the right,” to embrace true flourishing.