{"id":867,"date":"2018-08-05T04:04:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-05T04:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/healingandpeace.com\/blog\/?p=867"},"modified":"2018-08-06T18:43:48","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T18:43:48","slug":"catholic-book-review-of-born-only-once-third-edition-the-miracle-of-affirmation-by-conrad-w-baars-m-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healingandpeace.com\/blog\/therapists-desk\/reviews\/book-reviews\/catholic-book-review-of-born-only-once-third-edition-the-miracle-of-affirmation-by-conrad-w-baars-m-d\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Book Review of Born Only Once by Conrad W. Baars, M.D."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Born Only Once, Third Edition: The Miracle of Affirmation by Conrad W. Baars, M.D.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Born Only Once<\/em> by Conrad Baars, M.D. is not just a “must read” for every Catholic therapist and therapy client, but for every Catholic.\u00a0 As Christians, we are called to love God and neighbor (Cf. Mt. 22:37-40).\u00a0 In this book, Dr. Baars explains: (1) what has gone wrong when we find ourselves unable to love from an emotionally mature stance, (2)\u00a0what is first necessary in order to love our neighbors from the heart<\/em> and with Christian maturity and (3) what can help us to increase our ability to love our neighbors with Christian warmth.\u00a0 Born Only Once<\/em> is more of a booklet than a book and is short enough so that every Catholic can probably find the time to read the whole thing in spite of our often busy lives.<\/p>\n

Christian View of the Human Person<\/strong><\/p>\n

One main thing that sets this book apart from secular self-help books is that it has a proper view of the human person.\u00a0 It is obvious from what Dr. Baars wrote in Born Only Once<\/em> that he believes in what is referred to by moral theologians as the imago Dei<\/em>.\u00a0 This Latin phrase means “image of God” and refers to the book of Genesis where it says that we were created in the image and likeness of God (Cf. Gen. 1:26-28).\u00a0 That God is the source of human dignity is at the foundation of all Catholic moral theology.\u00a0 This inherent dignity is why we are called to treat one another well.\u00a0 Dr. Baars’ showed his understanding of this concept in Chapter 7, when he wrote of how Christ “loved each person precisely as he was.”\u00a0 This way of loving like Jesus, of sensing the inherent dignity of each person as he or she is, is at the core of the Gospel and reflects the Christian view of the human person according to Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.\u00a0 Dr. Baars also references twelve places in the Gospel that support this truth.<\/p>\n

Enabling Is Not Love<\/strong><\/p>\n

Right now, you might be thinking that there is something missing from the message that Jesus loves us as we are.\u00a0 You may believe that He loves us too much to let us stay as we currently are.\u00a0 Indeed, it is true that we are called to more.\u00a0 One Biblical proof supporting this position is in 1 John 2:6: “He who says he abides in [Christ] ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”<\/p>\n

We have to be careful not to get caught in black-and-white thinking, posing the belief “we are loved as we are” against the belief “we are called to more.”\u00a0 We are loved as we are and, at the same time, called to more.\u00a0 In Born Only Once<\/em>, Dr. Baars does an excellent job of equally honoring both of these truths.<\/p>\n

While holding the position that we are lovable as we are, Baars, at the same time, stresses that it is contrary to love when we enable the bad behavior of others.\u00a0 A couple of examples of the latter can be found in Chapter 3: The Opposite of Affirmation, where he writes that false-love can be seen:<\/p>\n