Clever analysis of anger

THE CURE FOR UNJUST ANGER
By John Downame
(abridged by Brian G. Hedges)
Reformation Heritage Books. 126 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978 1 601 787 675

If anger regularly gets the better of you and you ‘lose it’ to your shame and others’ pain, here is a little book you should read. An abridged, easy-to-read version of a spiritual classic from Shakespeare’s time bringing Puritan teaching right into our 21st-century world.

Why read a Puritan book on anger? Because people like Downame were clever analysts of the human psyche long before Freud came along, and their insights are still sharp and true. If you want to understand your own emotional life from a Biblical perspective and address the problem of anger effectively, this will help you.

He starts with a single text: ‘Be ye angry, and sin not, do not let the sun go down on your wrath’ (Eph. 4:26). From this verse he discusses when it is right to be angry (God is sometimes angry, so it can’t always be wrong), when anger is sinful, what those different kinds of anger look like and how we may subdue the sinful kind.

Being a Puritan, Downame is relentlessly systematic in his handling of Scripture and the subject of anger. He starts with the Bible but is careful to apply it. Here is an example; what do you do when someone is angry with you? First, be silent because Scripture commends it and our words just add fuel to the blaze. Second, answer softly. Scripture commends that too (Prov.15:1) and it cools the dispute. Finally, gently admonish the angry one, keep the temperature down as you share your point of view.

For personal reading, source material for small group studies, and fuel for a preaching series on handling anger, this is an excellent resource.