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

Written by David Powlison

Narrated by Jim Seybert

Something that matters to you just isn't right. First you see the problem, then you feel it. It starts with a rush of adrenaline and often a rush of words, but it ends with an overwhelming sense of irritation that impacts how we talk to those we live and work with. We know anger affects us negatively, but we don't know any other way to respond when life goes wrong.

In this groundbreaking book David Powlison undertakes an in-depth exploration of the roots of anger, moral judgment, and righteous response by looking in a surprising place: God's own anger. Powlison reminds us that God gets angry too. He sees things in this world that aren't right and he wants justice too. But God's anger doesn't devolve into manipulation or trying to control others to get his own way. Instead his anger is good and redemptive. It causes him to step into our world to make wrongs right, sending his own Son to die so that we can be reconciled. He is both our model for change and our power to change.

Good and Angry sets listeners on a path toward a faithful and fruitful expression of anger. Powlison offers practical help for people who struggle with irritation, complaining, or bitterness and gives guidance for how to respond constructively when life goes wrong. You, your family, and your friends will all be glad that you listened to this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: May 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781666107364

David Powlison

David Powlison (1949–2019) was a teacher, a counselor, and the executive director of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation. He received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and was also the senior editor of the Journal of Biblical Counseling. He wrote a number of books, including How Does Sanctification Work?; Making All Things New; and God's Grace in Your Suffering.

Reviews for Good and Angry

[Jeff Fambrough · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So good when it comes to anger and grace around what we need to do as Christians

[Jaron Cadena · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great message to those who may have no experience or practice to what anger does and shows in our lives. I appreciate how the author is able to empathize with those who are in different walks of anger and bridges it to better understanding towards it. I'm thankful to our God who is merciful but at the same time is there to hear our cry. Listening to this audibook makes me realize how much I don't do well at trusting God.

[Pamela · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Great author, but the narrator whistles after certain letters which makes it painful for sound disabled people to listen to. Could not listen for more than a minute.

[Deezadesigns · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

GOD'S anger is good? The victims of Noah's Flood, or the innocent children and adults not caught up in the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah may have thought otherwise. Time and again God's wrath as exhibited in the Old Testament leads to violent brutality and genocide. And if we as humans are obliged to follow the 10 commandments - why is God exempt? Rules for thee and not for me.

It is only by conflating Jesus the son with the Old Testament Father that one could argue that at least the Jesus version of God is morally righteous and not pathologically violent just because he was primarily loving?. The believers are just supposed to accept that whole peoples were wiped from the face of the earth just because we were told they were evil? This type of religious textual precedent allowed for the holocaust by Nazis who saw themselves as righteous Christian protestants who wanted religious purity to be practiced across the land, it also paved the way for the brutality of the Crusades and the genocidal slaughter of the Indigenous peoples of Central and South America by the Catholic Spaniards. The glorification of God as one who is righteously angry and those who believe in this anger has historically legitimized violence has truly been the worst that Christianity has had to offer human kind.