I Told Me So: Self-Deception and the Christian Life

I Told Me So: Self-Deception and the Christian Life  Gregg A. Ten Elshof (Eerdmans)

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Eerdmans Publishing Co.; First Printing edition (June 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802864112
• ISBN-13: 978-0802864116
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x

Here's the blurb:

Think you’ve ever deceived yourself? Then this book is for you. / Think you’ve never deceived yourself? Then this book is really for you. / “Socrates famously asserted that the unexamined life is not worth living. But Gregg Ten Elshof shows us that we make all sorts of little deals with ourselves every day in order to stave off examination and remain happily self-deceived. Most provocatively, he suggests this is not all bad! While naming its temptations, Ten Elshof also offers a ‘strange celebration’ of self-deception as a gracious gift. In the tradition of Dallas Willard, I Told Me So is a wonderful example of philosophy serving spiritual discipline. A marvelous, accessible and, above all, wise book.”— James K. A. Smith / Calvin College / author of The Devil Reads Derrida / “In this wise, well-crafted work Ten Elshof helps us to identify, evaluate, and respond to our own self-deceptive strategies, as he probes — with occasional self-deprecation and unavoidable humor — the bottomless mysteries of the human heart. His reflections on interpersonal self-deception and ‘groupthink’ are especially helpful. To tell me the truth, I’m glad I read this book. You will be too — I promise.”— David Naugle / Dallas Baptist University / author of Reordered Love, Reordered Lives / “Ten Elshof’s discussions are erudite, biblical, searching, and laced with soul-restoring wisdom. All of this together means that this book is solidly pastoral. What it brings to us is appropriate to individuals, but it especially belongs in the context of small groups and local congregations.”— Dallas Willard (from the foreword)

About the Author

Gregg A. Ten Elshof is associate professor and department chair of philosophy at Biola University. He is also the author of Introspection Vindicated.

Here is a review: http://inchristus.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/i-told-me-so-self-deception-and-the-christian-life-a-review/