I'm only partway into it, but it's proving to be a fascinating read, enough so that I hope to cover some of its content over the next several posts. Might I mention that this is the first book I have ever felt compelled to review this way?
If you have been a long-time reader, you might remember that back in 2007 there was a good deal of conversation about personality types. You might also remember that I ran an unscientific poll, indicating that nearly 75% of my blog community were introverts.
This has been on my mind ever since, and I think I've finally found a book that will help me make some sense of it.
You know that my primary area of personal interest is the disaffected christian, i.e. those who have found their way out of traditional christianity due to conflicts with the hard and fast belief systems most denominations and traditions demand. In a nutshell, we don't fit in.
I have always believed that there must be some reason the majority of my blog community are BOTH a) disaffected christians and b) introverts. Aside from the obvious but errant reasoning that we are loners and simply don't fit into community in any fashion, it has been in my heart that there has to be another answer. However, that answer has proven elusive; until now.
I don't mean to oversimplify; for the myriad of other reasons myself and others like me "leave" church are also valid, and I don't think it's as simple as having a personality conflict with the way church is "done". However, I do think that being introverted might more readily focus for us the problems within christianity, as it exists in the western world, and our recognition of those problems is simply a by-product of being introverted and therefore spending significant time in careful reflection of anything that is of value to us.
On the flip-side, I'm sure there are many introverts who are perfectly happy "in church", and so there does seem to be some even deeper issue at play with some of us. As well, one could argue that my poll is too unscientific to draw any conclusions from, because simply put, maybe the introverts are the ones who are talking about their disillusionment online, and the extroverts are talking about it in "real life", hence the poll's disparity. But for now I'm investigating the simple presumption that so many people in my blog world who are disillusioned also seem to be introverts.
However, before I begin with the book, let me ask you, my fellow introverts, one question, which approaches the issue from another angle that I'll get to later on.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
That is to say, do you think people are introverts because they have low self-esteem, or do people have low self-esteem because they are introverts?
Think about that for a minute.
I don't mean to say all introverts have low-self esteem, or vice-versa; I'm asking the question in regards to those who DO fit into both categories.
What do you think?
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