The Adventure of Living

by Paul Tournier, Edwin Hudson (Translator)

Paul Tournier, who now lives actively in retirement, was a general practitioner in Geneva for nearly fifty years. Although he never had a specialist training in psychiatry and disclaims the title of psychiatrist, his own experiences, and his discovery that many of his patients needed help going deeper than drugs or surgery, led him to develop and practise what he calls 'the medicine of the person', in which medical knowledge, understanding and religion are combined. His books include A Doctor's Casebook in the Light of the Bible, Escape from Loneliness, Learning to Grow Old, Marriage Difficulties, The Meaning of Persons, The Person Reborn, A Place for You, The Strong and the Weak and What's in a Name? A Tournier Companion is being published in 1976. Of The Adventure of Living the Church Times wrote: 'This author's own immense zest for living infects his writing, while his religious sincerity makes very moving his appeal for a closer walk with God as the only thing which can finally unlock the door to happiness. This is a book to be warmly commended to the thoughtful reader and one which, incidentally, should do much to encourage those who are often depressed by the apparent incompatibility between Christian faith and modern science.'

Genres: Christian, Psychology, Nonfiction, Religion, Spirituality

250 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Paul Tournier was a Swiss physician and author who had acquired a worldwide audience for his work in pastoral counselling. His ideas had a significant impact on the spiritual and psychosocial aspects of routine patient care, and he had been called the twentieth century's most famous Christian physician.

Reviews

[Smoellering · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book about life as an adventure, and how Jesus is the one who ultimately completes our desire for adventure. A little repetitive at times and the style is certainly for an older generation, but still relevant and applicable today.

[Aaron Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

“…[The] instinct of adventure is one of the most obvious explanations for the characteristic behavior of man, one of the great driving forces behind his actions, as important as the instinct of self-preservation, which has so often been described as the mainspring of civilization and its technical progress.”

Quality vs. Quantity Adventure
“The inner urge toward an ultimate which is always driving him on is an aspiration toward the realization of experiences of value, of quality. But because he fails in this, he is always tempted to make up in quantity what he has not achieved in quality.”
Examples of quantity adventure… money, gambling, drugs, frenzied activity (“…the whirl of activities with which they fill their lives is a compensation for a profound dissatisfaction in regard to the quality of life they are living…”), power, adultery.

“The dullest and most humdrum life can be enlivened by imagined pleasures.”

“The instinct of adventure…is an instinct of love, a need to give himself, to dedicate himself, to pursue a worthwhile goal, accepting every sacrifice in order to attain it.”

“Men may be mistaken in the goals toward which they strive in their adventures… but the force that impels them into all kinds of adventure, bad as well as good, is a divine gift, a sign of love.”

“People fight as fiercely as they do because both sides are convinced that they are fighting for a cause worthy of their love—for country, justice, or truth.”

“Is my little personal adventure in harmony with the great adventure of God? Am I experiencing, in my little adventure, a part of the great adventure of God?”

[Leslie van Zyl-Smit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life is choice, may the choices you make lead you to the Adventure...

[Gary Chorpenning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wise old Dr. Tournier! As in all his writing, there are here deep insights into life with God from this physician-psychiatrist-theogian-disciple of Jesus.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Translated from its original French, this book was written in 1965 by a Swiss doctor, but is still surprisingly relevant today. He starts with the thesis that humans are made for 'adventure', but in the course of the book goes on to explain that this doesn't just mean high-risk thrills, but includes creativity, thoughtful changes, and - most of all - listening to and working with God. He cites many anecdotes from his own life and those of some of his patients, whom he attempted to treat holistically, becoming involved in their lives and feelings as well as their physical ailments.

Inevitably a book of this kind reflects the culture of its time and the author's own biases; I found him rather demeaning to women in places, implying that a female adventure would include a new outfit. - or, at most, marriage and children. However there was so much else that was thought-provoking and inspirational that I was able to gloss over such passages, and remind myself that society has moved on significantly.

It was quite heavy-going in places; not a book to be read in a couple of sittings. It took me about three weeks, reading a chapter per day, and gave me a lot to think about.

[Elizabeth Goode · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written in the sixties but the ideas are surprisingly relevant. The author, a Swiss GP, maintains that in creating mankind in his own image, God, himself a great adventurer, has implanted his own spirit of adventure in us. He points out that God's work of creation is a colourful, inventive and energetic affair and maintains that human work should be the same. Modern human ills such as addictions, excessive activism, materialism and psychological or somatic illnesses are the result of our failure to find our God-given "creative adventure". This book made me think about work in a completely new way.

[Karson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book I read by this guy. About enjoying life and all its craziness, which more often then not doesn't seem too enjoyable to me. Rather than enrich the chaos can threaten. Often times thats what it does to me, but this book is about loving it all. I might pick it up again.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book contains lots about how a human needs to tap into the "adventure" in life. There is much truth in this book. Even though the book had depth, I lost interest because I felt I was reading the same message from a different perspective with each chapter.