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The Whole Person in a Broken World
Book by Tournier, Paul
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First published January 1, 1977
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About the author
Paul Tournier
72 books103 followersPaul 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.
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November 17, 2018
This is the next book by Paul Tournier that I was able to hunt down in the UW library system. It too is out of print and unavailable as an ebook, but thanks to the interlibrary loan system, I was able to get it shipped from the University of Oregon. Paul Tournier is a Swiss Christian doctor who did most of his writing during the 1950s. As such, some of the material, especially anything scientific, feels a little dated. But the most profound parts dealing with the Christian life are as relevant as ever.
When I started flipping through the pages quickly on a chilly autumn day from the library, I found myself impressed by the apologetic tone of the introduction.
Tournier was a committed Christian, but throughout his work, he acknowledges the shortcomings of his generation, and the Christian churches of his time. And he seeks to do better too. I find myself drawn to this approach: one can simultaneously be an anchored and committed Christian, and acknowledge faults and call for real change. Our institutions are valuable and worthy of preservation, but flawed. They are essential so that we can practice Christianity in real life, serve our neighbors in meaningful ways, and grow together. In Mormon lingo, you can only build Zion in a community. But we also need to be thoughtful about what we can do better.
Main points
Tournier's books follow a pattern: first a diagnosis followed by a prescription to achieve wholeness. The previous book, Guilt and Grace, has the diagnosis and prescription built into the title. The Whole Person in a Broken World also had a diagnosis (the separation of the spiritual and the temporal) and a prescription (the re-integration of the gospel into real-life problems rather than being stuck in the pews). He begins with an interesting analogy of the world as a person. As such, the world have gone through several stages. Tournier says Antiquity was the childhood of the world, and the world happened to be a Wunderkind. The philosophers and artists were amazing at what they did, and amaze us to this day. The Middle Ages was the school age years of the world, when the world just did as it was told, followed the rules, and didn't question authority. Beginning at the Renaissance, the world entered a rebellious teenage stage that we still haven't gotten out of:
Then comes the age of adolescence. A flood of new knowledge, the intoxication of learning, and the yearning for personal experience confront the adolescent with a thousand problems, which, so it seems to him, his parents escaped. He rises up against them; he revolts. He demands the right to think for himself and not in accord with a system of traditional thought, the right to follow his own opinions rather than the authority of others. He sits in judgment upon his parents and finds they themselves do not practice the morals they inculcate in him. He argues about everything and exults when his parents confess that they have no answers to the insatiable questions he asks.
Can we not compare this crisis of adolescence to that which was set off by the Renaissance?
My wife laughed a little bit at the analogy, but I felt like it certainly had a lot of explanatory power. It also made me wonder what an adult world would look like. Tournier posited that a mature world wouldn't necessarily be a return to the Church-dominated world of the Middle Ages, but that it would include a return to acknowledging the centrality of spiritual values and a reconciliation between faith and reason.
This is the central problem of the modern world according to Tournier: the separation of the spiritual and the temporal. But Tournier, at least in the book, lays the fault not at secular powers advocating for separation of church and state, but rather at the feet of the churches themselves. They have ceased to seek to engage with the world and the problems of the day, instead relegating spirituality to a small portion of life. Practicing Christians aren't calling on their faith to address life's challenges. It has become entirely theoretical, a dead sort of faith. It reminded me of some of the discussion in Kathleen Flakes: The Seating of Smoot in which she discussed the differences between Mormonism and mainline Christianity in America. Christianity had become a denomination that didn't claim the entire life of an individual, while Mormonism was "a church with the soul of a nation." When your faith becomes only another key on the keychain of your identities rather than the central organizing force, it is weak. I'm wanting to quote Chesterton here, but I can't remember the line: he said that we need Christian authors writing about philosophy, science, music, the arts-- and not just Christians writing about Christianity. To be the salt of the earth, you need to, well, be in the world. Tournier modeled this very well in his own career, merging his work with patients with his own personal ministry.
What is Tournier's solution? His final chapter is his most powerful where he calls upon Christians to be engaged in the world, and to love and seek to heal:
I am convinced that we today, we Christians, must unite two things which are often opposed but which Christ joined together. On the one hand we must have a clear consciousness of our own unique vocation, our calling to make His voice heard, that voice which alone can provide a true answer to the questions of this tormented world. But at the same time we must guard against making His divine person the subject of division between us and other men, against rejecting them under the pretext that they do not possess the truth which has been given to us. Without concealing anything about our faith, let us seek that which brings us closer to them, that common need for spiritual renewal, even though they may put it in words different than ours.
Will the Church be equal to its task in the face of this disquietude of our contemporaries? Will it be able to bring about not a discussion which rebuffs it but rather a living dialogue and fellowship which responds to their confused yearnings? That is the question which haunts me.
If we want to help the world in its present crisis, then we Christians dare no longer give the impression that we believe there are two opposing camps: the Christians, to which we belong, and that of the atheistic ideologies, our opponents.
We must stop saying to them: Come back to us, for we possess the truth. We must rather say: Let us all turn back to Christ.
The Church, it seems to me, has separated itself from real life and thus simply abandoned the world to its practical difficulties and taken refuge in an ivory tower. And for this it bears a heavy responsibility for our present crisis.
Tournier is a great model of Christian work, of infusing your career that outwardly is secular in nature with the spirit of the gospel. Christianity is meant to be lived. In this respect, I really think that Paul Tournier would get along very well with Lowell Bennion's practical gospel. I feel like our own Church is attempting self-correct in the direction Tournier has advocated: the call for more personal responsibility in ministering efforts, the shortening of time spent in church, and the implementation of home-centered gospel study. Hopefully we can fulfill Tournier's vision of "a living dialogue and fellowship" in the world.
When I started flipping through the pages quickly on a chilly autumn day from the library, I found myself impressed by the apologetic tone of the introduction.
Tournier was a committed Christian, but throughout his work, he acknowledges the shortcomings of his generation, and the Christian churches of his time. And he seeks to do better too. I find myself drawn to this approach: one can simultaneously be an anchored and committed Christian, and acknowledge faults and call for real change. Our institutions are valuable and worthy of preservation, but flawed. They are essential so that we can practice Christianity in real life, serve our neighbors in meaningful ways, and grow together. In Mormon lingo, you can only build Zion in a community. But we also need to be thoughtful about what we can do better.
Main points
Tournier's books follow a pattern: first a diagnosis followed by a prescription to achieve wholeness. The previous book, Guilt and Grace, has the diagnosis and prescription built into the title. The Whole Person in a Broken World also had a diagnosis (the separation of the spiritual and the temporal) and a prescription (the re-integration of the gospel into real-life problems rather than being stuck in the pews). He begins with an interesting analogy of the world as a person. As such, the world have gone through several stages. Tournier says Antiquity was the childhood of the world, and the world happened to be a Wunderkind. The philosophers and artists were amazing at what they did, and amaze us to this day. The Middle Ages was the school age years of the world, when the world just did as it was told, followed the rules, and didn't question authority. Beginning at the Renaissance, the world entered a rebellious teenage stage that we still haven't gotten out of:
Then comes the age of adolescence. A flood of new knowledge, the intoxication of learning, and the yearning for personal experience confront the adolescent with a thousand problems, which, so it seems to him, his parents escaped. He rises up against them; he revolts. He demands the right to think for himself and not in accord with a system of traditional thought, the right to follow his own opinions rather than the authority of others. He sits in judgment upon his parents and finds they themselves do not practice the morals they inculcate in him. He argues about everything and exults when his parents confess that they have no answers to the insatiable questions he asks.
Can we not compare this crisis of adolescence to that which was set off by the Renaissance?
My wife laughed a little bit at the analogy, but I felt like it certainly had a lot of explanatory power. It also made me wonder what an adult world would look like. Tournier posited that a mature world wouldn't necessarily be a return to the Church-dominated world of the Middle Ages, but that it would include a return to acknowledging the centrality of spiritual values and a reconciliation between faith and reason.
This is the central problem of the modern world according to Tournier: the separation of the spiritual and the temporal. But Tournier, at least in the book, lays the fault not at secular powers advocating for separation of church and state, but rather at the feet of the churches themselves. They have ceased to seek to engage with the world and the problems of the day, instead relegating spirituality to a small portion of life. Practicing Christians aren't calling on their faith to address life's challenges. It has become entirely theoretical, a dead sort of faith. It reminded me of some of the discussion in Kathleen Flakes: The Seating of Smoot in which she discussed the differences between Mormonism and mainline Christianity in America. Christianity had become a denomination that didn't claim the entire life of an individual, while Mormonism was "a church with the soul of a nation." When your faith becomes only another key on the keychain of your identities rather than the central organizing force, it is weak. I'm wanting to quote Chesterton here, but I can't remember the line: he said that we need Christian authors writing about philosophy, science, music, the arts-- and not just Christians writing about Christianity. To be the salt of the earth, you need to, well, be in the world. Tournier modeled this very well in his own career, merging his work with patients with his own personal ministry.
What is Tournier's solution? His final chapter is his most powerful where he calls upon Christians to be engaged in the world, and to love and seek to heal:
I am convinced that we today, we Christians, must unite two things which are often opposed but which Christ joined together. On the one hand we must have a clear consciousness of our own unique vocation, our calling to make His voice heard, that voice which alone can provide a true answer to the questions of this tormented world. But at the same time we must guard against making His divine person the subject of division between us and other men, against rejecting them under the pretext that they do not possess the truth which has been given to us. Without concealing anything about our faith, let us seek that which brings us closer to them, that common need for spiritual renewal, even though they may put it in words different than ours.
Will the Church be equal to its task in the face of this disquietude of our contemporaries? Will it be able to bring about not a discussion which rebuffs it but rather a living dialogue and fellowship which responds to their confused yearnings? That is the question which haunts me.
If we want to help the world in its present crisis, then we Christians dare no longer give the impression that we believe there are two opposing camps: the Christians, to which we belong, and that of the atheistic ideologies, our opponents.
We must stop saying to them: Come back to us, for we possess the truth. We must rather say: Let us all turn back to Christ.
The Church, it seems to me, has separated itself from real life and thus simply abandoned the world to its practical difficulties and taken refuge in an ivory tower. And for this it bears a heavy responsibility for our present crisis.
Tournier is a great model of Christian work, of infusing your career that outwardly is secular in nature with the spirit of the gospel. Christianity is meant to be lived. In this respect, I really think that Paul Tournier would get along very well with Lowell Bennion's practical gospel. I feel like our own Church is attempting self-correct in the direction Tournier has advocated: the call for more personal responsibility in ministering efforts, the shortening of time spent in church, and the implementation of home-centered gospel study. Hopefully we can fulfill Tournier's vision of "a living dialogue and fellowship" in the world.
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September 13, 2022"A person is neurotic when he has repressed something without having really eliminated it.
Modern man thinks he has eliminated the world of values, of poetry, of moral consciousness; but he has only repressed it and is suffering from it... or fighting against himself."
- Paul Tournier
Amen, brother.
Modern man thinks he has eliminated the world of values, of poetry, of moral consciousness; but he has only repressed it and is suffering from it... or fighting against himself."
- Paul Tournier
Amen, brother.
August 20, 2024
TOURNIER LOOKS BEYOND THE PERSON, TO THE SOCIETY
Paul Tournier (1898-1986) was a Swiss physician, Christian counselor, and author, who also wrote books such as 'The Meaning of Persons.'
He wrote in the first chapter of this 1947 book, "We can thus compare the centuries man has lived since the Renaissance to the critical years of adolescence. This crisis is necessary and normal. Before he attains adult maturity the young man must go through this time of storm and stress when he has to subject everything to question. The day will come when he will discover again many of the treasures of his childhood, when he will return to the faith in which he grew up and the principles which were inculcated in him. For they were true, and life sees to it that he rediscovers them. But then... he will profess them as his own convictions... In psychology this is called integration." (Pg. 5)
He states, "The modern soul is hesitant... man is bewildered, tossed to and fro by contradictory doctrines... this same man cherishes at the bottom of his heart a justified intuition that these problems are nevertheless important... Modern man suffers from repression of conscience." (Pg. 12) He adds, "our modern world is a world without conviction... In every one of us today there is a deep uncertainty that stems from our inner conflict, from that separation between our spiritual and our technological life. The result is a world which is afraid. Without God, fear rules..." (Pg. 24-25)
He argues, "In order, therefore, to recover the sense of personhood, we shall have to put an end to the repression of the spirit, philosophy, and poetry... We shall have to resolve to study man, not merely from the outside... but also from the inside, through intuitive knowledge, through the spiritual communion which established a person-to-person bond between the physician and his patient." (Pg. 62-63)
He admits, "We can well understand why modern man, tired of a misused guardianship of the past of the church and disillusioned by all sorts of excesses committed in the name of spiritual values, has honestly searched for new ways... we believers too are clearly responsible. The church has withdrawn, it has not been interested in the real world. It offered to the world nothing but a purely spiritual bread which no longer satisfies its hunger." (Pg. 89) Later, he adds, "Our age is suffering because of the rift between the spiritual and the temporal... The church... has separated itself from real life and thus simply abandoned the world to its practical difficulties and taken refuge in an ivory tower." (Pg. 159)
He asserts, "It is my conviction that the church's hour has come. The church instituted by God, the servant of God, must again become his instrument to effect the synthesis for which all men of our time and consciously or unconsciously yearning. And here I mean the Church in the broadest sense, not only the clergy, not only the established churches, but all those who have been gripped by Jesus Christ." (Pg. 145-146) He concludes, "Yes, something must really change in the world, and this can only come through men who themselves are changed. But when a man is changed under the influence of grace, then not only the state of his soul, but also his whole comportment, is changed." (Pg. 169)
Tournier's books are becoming forgotten these days; but they were an important forerunner of the modern Christian/Biblical Counseling movement. [For an excellent overview, see 'The Christian Psychology of Paul Tournier.']
Paul Tournier (1898-1986) was a Swiss physician, Christian counselor, and author, who also wrote books such as 'The Meaning of Persons.'
He wrote in the first chapter of this 1947 book, "We can thus compare the centuries man has lived since the Renaissance to the critical years of adolescence. This crisis is necessary and normal. Before he attains adult maturity the young man must go through this time of storm and stress when he has to subject everything to question. The day will come when he will discover again many of the treasures of his childhood, when he will return to the faith in which he grew up and the principles which were inculcated in him. For they were true, and life sees to it that he rediscovers them. But then... he will profess them as his own convictions... In psychology this is called integration." (Pg. 5)
He states, "The modern soul is hesitant... man is bewildered, tossed to and fro by contradictory doctrines... this same man cherishes at the bottom of his heart a justified intuition that these problems are nevertheless important... Modern man suffers from repression of conscience." (Pg. 12) He adds, "our modern world is a world without conviction... In every one of us today there is a deep uncertainty that stems from our inner conflict, from that separation between our spiritual and our technological life. The result is a world which is afraid. Without God, fear rules..." (Pg. 24-25)
He argues, "In order, therefore, to recover the sense of personhood, we shall have to put an end to the repression of the spirit, philosophy, and poetry... We shall have to resolve to study man, not merely from the outside... but also from the inside, through intuitive knowledge, through the spiritual communion which established a person-to-person bond between the physician and his patient." (Pg. 62-63)
He admits, "We can well understand why modern man, tired of a misused guardianship of the past of the church and disillusioned by all sorts of excesses committed in the name of spiritual values, has honestly searched for new ways... we believers too are clearly responsible. The church has withdrawn, it has not been interested in the real world. It offered to the world nothing but a purely spiritual bread which no longer satisfies its hunger." (Pg. 89) Later, he adds, "Our age is suffering because of the rift between the spiritual and the temporal... The church... has separated itself from real life and thus simply abandoned the world to its practical difficulties and taken refuge in an ivory tower." (Pg. 159)
He asserts, "It is my conviction that the church's hour has come. The church instituted by God, the servant of God, must again become his instrument to effect the synthesis for which all men of our time and consciously or unconsciously yearning. And here I mean the Church in the broadest sense, not only the clergy, not only the established churches, but all those who have been gripped by Jesus Christ." (Pg. 145-146) He concludes, "Yes, something must really change in the world, and this can only come through men who themselves are changed. But when a man is changed under the influence of grace, then not only the state of his soul, but also his whole comportment, is changed." (Pg. 169)
Tournier's books are becoming forgotten these days; but they were an important forerunner of the modern Christian/Biblical Counseling movement. [For an excellent overview, see 'The Christian Psychology of Paul Tournier.']
January 7, 2026
I never finish a Paul Tournier book without a lot to think about -- this time, the sections on the myth of progress and the myth of power really struck me. Tournier argues, from 50 years ago!, that our society has been built upon the concept that life is a battle, survival of the fittest, kill or be killed. I was stunned by how many of his examples were unexamined principles I've heard, believed, accepted. But is this the Biblical model? Are we here to win? To battle against others? Or, could the opposite view be true: we are here to use power to serve others, to protect the weak, to lay our lives down?
Likewise, he has a long section where he argues against evolution with the main point being evolution is also an unproved theory, just as much as creation. I didn't expect this discussion! But he made a lot of excellent points.
The last chapter was optimistic talking about how the church can unify and stop dividing and shine the light of God in the world. I've heard many similar things in the last 10 - 15 years. I'm not sure I see this happening, but I do agree that what could change everything in terms of "the whole person in a broken world" is individuals completely surrendered to the Lord and pursuing "integration" as he says it*. That seems to be what being "whole" is all about: aligned, integrated, outside matching inside, purity of heart.
*See "Anatomy of the Soul" by Curt Thompson and his treatment of integration.
Likewise, he has a long section where he argues against evolution with the main point being evolution is also an unproved theory, just as much as creation. I didn't expect this discussion! But he made a lot of excellent points.
The last chapter was optimistic talking about how the church can unify and stop dividing and shine the light of God in the world. I've heard many similar things in the last 10 - 15 years. I'm not sure I see this happening, but I do agree that what could change everything in terms of "the whole person in a broken world" is individuals completely surrendered to the Lord and pursuing "integration" as he says it*. That seems to be what being "whole" is all about: aligned, integrated, outside matching inside, purity of heart.
*See "Anatomy of the Soul" by Curt Thompson and his treatment of integration.
January 2, 2025
This is a truly valuable, well thought-out work of 20th century philosophy from a time when philosophy was disappearing in its influence on the world. Tournier brings a Christian truth to the field but references a truly wide range of philosophical and psychological sources. He sees humanity as a whole mirroring the life and growing maturing of the individual - with the 'inner conflicts' facing humanity at present, merely the typical adolescent rebellion troubles common to all people. I have much mused on this aspect myself and Tournier puts a good model to the idea. Basically the problem is rejection of the spiritual in the arrogant self assurance of supposed independence from God. From his medical background Tournier draws evidence of how spiritual grounding and specifically faith in God is an inexplicable component in wellness and healing. In the end Tournier is optimistic because he sees adulthood just around the corner - but perhaps he was a over hasty in this given developments since 1965.
Yet his predictions and his thinking remain surprisingly relevant a quarter the way through the 21st century. As much as we think things have developed really at the core very little has actually changed. The book is strongest in sections I - III, less convincing in the two Myth chapters and thought provoking and in need or contemporary reflection for the last chapter on 'the present task of the church' - society may not have changed as much as people thought, but God has moved his church along considerably.
I The Inner Conflict of Modern Man
II The Precedence of Personhood
III The Rift between the Spiritual and the Temporal
IV The Myth of Progress
V The Myth of Power
VI the Task of the Church
Yet his predictions and his thinking remain surprisingly relevant a quarter the way through the 21st century. As much as we think things have developed really at the core very little has actually changed. The book is strongest in sections I - III, less convincing in the two Myth chapters and thought provoking and in need or contemporary reflection for the last chapter on 'the present task of the church' - society may not have changed as much as people thought, but God has moved his church along considerably.
I The Inner Conflict of Modern Man
II The Precedence of Personhood
III The Rift between the Spiritual and the Temporal
IV The Myth of Progress
V The Myth of Power
VI the Task of the Church
August 26, 2017
Dr. Tournier was an excellent thinker who braved the spectrum from philosophy and history to science and faith. I learned a lot from this book and was surprised to see that the challenges to Christianity he was writing about are still of the same sort today.
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September 3, 2011Call Number: 155.6 TOU-9
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