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Revolt Against Maturity
Revolt Against Maturity is a study of Biblical psychology. Biblical psychology contrasts sharply with a science of the mind based on the religious presuppositions of humanism, which regards man as having no constant nature. A science of the mind based on humanism views the mind as a clean slate, and man's nature as plastic to be molded by men and institutions in the image of man for the new order he will establish. The Biblical view sees Psychology as a branch of theology; theology is a study of all that the Scriptures declare about God. Theology is essential not only to the study of psychology, but to ethics, anthropology, soteriology, eschatology, etc. Biblical Psychology assumes that man is created in the image of God directly, and not indirectly through theistic— or any other kind of evolution. Being created directly by God, man is not in the process of defining or determining his ontological qualities. Man has already been determined and defined by God. Thus it is God who has established the limits and nature of the mind.
The mind of regenerate man experiences radically different motives and presuppositions from those of unregenerate man. The author sees the central task of Christian Psychology as that of discerning the mind and soul differences that exist between the regenerate and unregenerate. Pastoral counseling should first seek to establish whether or not a person is truly regenerate, and then aid the regenerate to further growth in sanctification.
Work was to have provided the joy of fulfillment in God's goal of maturity for man, but because of the curse man is often subject to the frustration of meaningless and degrading work. True work is the exercise of dominion over the creation under God. When man's work is separated from dominion of the created world, he is often subject to moral and religious paralysis and becomes a sick soul.
Man suffers similarly when he abstracts God from reality. Since God created everything, nothing can be interpreted apart from God. When man attempts this impossibility, he suffers psychologically. True knowledge of anything is revelational of God. Thus, an aspect of man's revolt against maturity and against life is his revolt against knowledge. Psychological damaging is inevitable for those in revolt against the maturity which the God of all life and all knowledge has purposed for man.
The certain and true guilt which the human personality suffers because of sin can be alleviated only when God effects regeneration through the atoning blood of Christ. Thus having laid aside the old self with its evil practices, the new self is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24) In the general or wider sense, the image of God in man means that man like God is a personality. The author notes that "in the redeemed man, this means that man becomes progressively more and more a person, selfconscious in his growth and character (as opposed to being unconscious of his nature), and steadily manifesting more and more the image of God in knowledge, righteousness, holiness, and dominion." Sanctification is unto holiness by which man realizes his chief end: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever: But because of his revolt against maturity man continues to suffer psychological damage both personally and collectively through the chaotic condition of his mind and his culture.
The mind of regenerate man experiences radically different motives and presuppositions from those of unregenerate man. The author sees the central task of Christian Psychology as that of discerning the mind and soul differences that exist between the regenerate and unregenerate. Pastoral counseling should first seek to establish whether or not a person is truly regenerate, and then aid the regenerate to further growth in sanctification.
Work was to have provided the joy of fulfillment in God's goal of maturity for man, but because of the curse man is often subject to the frustration of meaningless and degrading work. True work is the exercise of dominion over the creation under God. When man's work is separated from dominion of the created world, he is often subject to moral and religious paralysis and becomes a sick soul.
Man suffers similarly when he abstracts God from reality. Since God created everything, nothing can be interpreted apart from God. When man attempts this impossibility, he suffers psychologically. True knowledge of anything is revelational of God. Thus, an aspect of man's revolt against maturity and against life is his revolt against knowledge. Psychological damaging is inevitable for those in revolt against the maturity which the God of all life and all knowledge has purposed for man.
The certain and true guilt which the human personality suffers because of sin can be alleviated only when God effects regeneration through the atoning blood of Christ. Thus having laid aside the old self with its evil practices, the new self is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24) In the general or wider sense, the image of God in man means that man like God is a personality. The author notes that "in the redeemed man, this means that man becomes progressively more and more a person, selfconscious in his growth and character (as opposed to being unconscious of his nature), and steadily manifesting more and more the image of God in knowledge, righteousness, holiness, and dominion." Sanctification is unto holiness by which man realizes his chief end: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever: But because of his revolt against maturity man continues to suffer psychological damage both personally and collectively through the chaotic condition of his mind and his culture.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1977
17 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
About the author
Rousas John Rushdoony
137 books148 followersRousas John Rushdoony was a Calvinist philosopher, historian, and theologian and is widely credited as the father of both Christian Reconstructionism and the modern homeschool movement. His prolific writings have exerted considerable influence on the Christian right.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 25, 2016
A basic theme of this book is that man's psychology is to be understood in terms of creation, fall, and redemption. Man was created in a certain way (e.g. in the image of God in knowledge, righteousness, holiness, and with dominion) and he cannot escape that fact. Revolt from maturity (i.e. his created role under God) ends in frustration and death. Man either seeks his justification (from men) through destructive self-atonement or he receives his justification (from God) by Christ's atonement, leading to a productive life, free of the burden of guilt.
"Man's revolt against the maturity God requires of him is thus ultimately a revolt against life." (p. 3)
"A Christian psychology must thus be theological, and systematically Biblical, or else it will be a facet of man's revolt against maturity." (p. 336)
"Man's revolt against the maturity God requires of him is thus ultimately a revolt against life." (p. 3)
"A Christian psychology must thus be theological, and systematically Biblical, or else it will be a facet of man's revolt against maturity." (p. 336)
July 31, 2023
Phenomenal and thorough, as I would expect from a Reconstructionist. Highly recommended.
September 25, 2013
"Sin is destructive of man...a defiance of God and a supplanting of His law with man's will. The real enticement is not a particular sin, but the principle of sin: the desire for autonomy from God." ~RJR, page 14
May the Lord give us all a heart to love Him and delight in His law. "Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart." (Psa. 119:34) ~M
May the Lord give us all a heart to love Him and delight in His law. "Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart." (Psa. 119:34) ~M
October 10, 2023
A difficult trudge. Various topics related to anthropology.
May 7, 2025
More of an anthropology than psychology. Good endeavor to keep the Bible as our foundation, but it often became too narrow, wooden, or speculative.
July 31, 2013
The development of psychology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has provoked a response by Christian theologians to evaluate psychology in light of the Bible. In Revolt Against Maturity, R.J. Rushdoony brings the thought of Cornelius Van Til to bear upon psychology and the mind of man. One might expect to read a great deal of specific mental illnesses, symptoms, and causes. But instead, Rushdoony rejects the humanistic categories arguing, “If the Bible is right, mental health is a product of justification, of the atonement effected by Jesus Christ, applied and developed in the life of man. This means sanctification, and the rule of faith is clearly the law. Man cannot find mental health apart from faith and obedience. To assume that mental health is possible on any other grounds is to deny that the fall of man was occasioned by sin; it is to deny moreover that the sovereign and sole remedy for the fall is the atoning, regenerating, and sanctifying work and power of God the Son, and of God the Spirit, in terms of the calling of God the Father.” (Page 336)
The result is a profound, even brilliant critique demonstrating that, “Humanistic psychologies are aspects of the revolt against maturity. Not surprisingly, they interpret man, not in terms of the doctrine of mature creation, but in terms of the essential infantilism of man, and they in part remake man in terms of their false image of him. The consequence of this disastrous course is not mental health but the aggravation of man’s fall, and the development of his depravity to further degrees.” (Page 336)
Rushdoony argues that these humanistic psychologies justify “man’s apostasy and rebellion.” (Page 332) The influence of Van Til is fundamental to Rushdoony’s critique as he argues, ““Man can never be understood in terms of himself but only by reference to the sovereign purpose of God. A humanistic psychology will always deny this transcendence and will therefore deny to man the meaning of his existence.” (Page 7)
The book is a collection of self-contained essays ranging from five to twelve pages in length. The strength of this structure is that the book may profitably be read piecemeal, and over a protracted timeframe. It is not an intellectually difficult read, though theologically challenging. His high view of Scripture leaves no wiggle room for humanistic assertions, demanding the reader submit to the teaching of Scripture at every turn, and bending the knee to the Lordship of Christ in all things. The weakness to the short chapter lengths is that he does not take things as deeply as they could go. But the book is best viewed as an introductory, foundational-type work that creates categories for further analysis and study.
The book, may be most profitably read slowly, as the sheer brilliance of Rushdoony’s analysis may be lost if read too quickly. Not all the chapters are as thought-provoking as others, but one will surely be astounded throughout the book as one realizes the manner in which we Christians have succumbed to humanist psychology at nearly every turn.
As I’ve already said, the book is truly a tribute to the thought of Van Til—particularly in his thought of antithesis. The Fall is the foundational event in the history of human psychology—as the desire for autonomy is not merely a one-time event at the Fall, but the curse of human history. Man is continually confronted with the desire for autonomy, rejecting God, and establishing oneself as god.
But it is important to clarify that, “…man cannot be said to have lost his humanity in the fall without violence to Scripture. Man was man both before and after the fall; the difference was that he became a sinful man.” (Page 56) Man is and always will be man—that is the image of God. What is significant is the evil distortion of sin upon the psychology of man—his depravity is total. Rushdoony writes that total depravity is when “every aspect of man’s nature is corrupted and governed by his fall,” not that “fallen man is incapable of ever manifesting any trace of human goodness.” (Page 70)
But God has created a redeemed people—a new race, no longer slaves to sin:
“The contrast thus between the fallen and redeemed man is a very marked one. The psychology of fallen man reveals a will to disobey; his hatred of anything that suggests the law of God is so intense that he consistently violates laws in disregard for his own self interest… The redeemed man, however, manifests progressively a will to obey God and a delight in His law.” (Page 83)
The mark of the Fall is the weight of guilt in the conscience of man: “Guilt feelings…are not easily disposed of, and modern man has found that guilt insistently plagues man.” (Page 102) The harder man seeks to escape “guilt and responsibility, the more serious the outcroppings of guilt have become in the forms of anxiety, hostility, sadism, and masochism.” It is this guilt that works to destroy man. He writes, “A common complaint of mentally disturbed people, as well as many criminals, is that they ‘feel dead inside.’” (Page 111)
The burden of guilt manifests itself in bizarre, masochistic ways. He writes, “The masochist wants punishment in order that he may in effect pay the price of his sin. According to his accounting system, sins have their price; when that price is paid, a man has both freedom to commit the sin and to be absolved of sin and guilt.” (Page 159) The guilty soul craves atonement, knowing its necessity. But fallen man cannot seek or find atonement in the one place it is available—the cross of Christ. Instead, there is an “abundance of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, all feeding on this burden and identifying it by their failure.” The need for confession augments the market for psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychoanalysts. Their ubiquity “rests in part in its ability to provide for confession on humanistic terms.” (Page 275)
Rushdoony’s central thesis throughout the book is that, “Man, in seeking to be free from God, is seeking freedom from responsibility, and the consequence is a growing immaturity.” He weaves this thesis through the book as he examines how this works out in the dominion mandate, knowledge, personality, sex, thoughts on heaven and hell, imagination, death, freedom, atonement, grace, discipline, justification, adoption, time, hope, peace, patience, conscience, confession, forgiveness, work, and worship. This is actually just an abbreviated list of the chapters of the book.
All of this is worked out in culture—and this is one of the most insightful aspects of the book. Rushdoony shows how the Christian “desire to improve himself and his world.” (Page 273) Whereas the unbeliever fails to “capitalize society” and their economy is marked by “exploitation” and “statism.” (Page 302)
Christians must reclaim psychology and place it within the sphere of theology (Page 335). Until we do so, we will have no answer to "mental illness” as the humanist psychologists have come to term unrepentant sin and autonomous man.
The result is a profound, even brilliant critique demonstrating that, “Humanistic psychologies are aspects of the revolt against maturity. Not surprisingly, they interpret man, not in terms of the doctrine of mature creation, but in terms of the essential infantilism of man, and they in part remake man in terms of their false image of him. The consequence of this disastrous course is not mental health but the aggravation of man’s fall, and the development of his depravity to further degrees.” (Page 336)
Rushdoony argues that these humanistic psychologies justify “man’s apostasy and rebellion.” (Page 332) The influence of Van Til is fundamental to Rushdoony’s critique as he argues, ““Man can never be understood in terms of himself but only by reference to the sovereign purpose of God. A humanistic psychology will always deny this transcendence and will therefore deny to man the meaning of his existence.” (Page 7)
The book is a collection of self-contained essays ranging from five to twelve pages in length. The strength of this structure is that the book may profitably be read piecemeal, and over a protracted timeframe. It is not an intellectually difficult read, though theologically challenging. His high view of Scripture leaves no wiggle room for humanistic assertions, demanding the reader submit to the teaching of Scripture at every turn, and bending the knee to the Lordship of Christ in all things. The weakness to the short chapter lengths is that he does not take things as deeply as they could go. But the book is best viewed as an introductory, foundational-type work that creates categories for further analysis and study.
The book, may be most profitably read slowly, as the sheer brilliance of Rushdoony’s analysis may be lost if read too quickly. Not all the chapters are as thought-provoking as others, but one will surely be astounded throughout the book as one realizes the manner in which we Christians have succumbed to humanist psychology at nearly every turn.
As I’ve already said, the book is truly a tribute to the thought of Van Til—particularly in his thought of antithesis. The Fall is the foundational event in the history of human psychology—as the desire for autonomy is not merely a one-time event at the Fall, but the curse of human history. Man is continually confronted with the desire for autonomy, rejecting God, and establishing oneself as god.
But it is important to clarify that, “…man cannot be said to have lost his humanity in the fall without violence to Scripture. Man was man both before and after the fall; the difference was that he became a sinful man.” (Page 56) Man is and always will be man—that is the image of God. What is significant is the evil distortion of sin upon the psychology of man—his depravity is total. Rushdoony writes that total depravity is when “every aspect of man’s nature is corrupted and governed by his fall,” not that “fallen man is incapable of ever manifesting any trace of human goodness.” (Page 70)
But God has created a redeemed people—a new race, no longer slaves to sin:
“The contrast thus between the fallen and redeemed man is a very marked one. The psychology of fallen man reveals a will to disobey; his hatred of anything that suggests the law of God is so intense that he consistently violates laws in disregard for his own self interest… The redeemed man, however, manifests progressively a will to obey God and a delight in His law.” (Page 83)
The mark of the Fall is the weight of guilt in the conscience of man: “Guilt feelings…are not easily disposed of, and modern man has found that guilt insistently plagues man.” (Page 102) The harder man seeks to escape “guilt and responsibility, the more serious the outcroppings of guilt have become in the forms of anxiety, hostility, sadism, and masochism.” It is this guilt that works to destroy man. He writes, “A common complaint of mentally disturbed people, as well as many criminals, is that they ‘feel dead inside.’” (Page 111)
The burden of guilt manifests itself in bizarre, masochistic ways. He writes, “The masochist wants punishment in order that he may in effect pay the price of his sin. According to his accounting system, sins have their price; when that price is paid, a man has both freedom to commit the sin and to be absolved of sin and guilt.” (Page 159) The guilty soul craves atonement, knowing its necessity. But fallen man cannot seek or find atonement in the one place it is available—the cross of Christ. Instead, there is an “abundance of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, all feeding on this burden and identifying it by their failure.” The need for confession augments the market for psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychoanalysts. Their ubiquity “rests in part in its ability to provide for confession on humanistic terms.” (Page 275)
Rushdoony’s central thesis throughout the book is that, “Man, in seeking to be free from God, is seeking freedom from responsibility, and the consequence is a growing immaturity.” He weaves this thesis through the book as he examines how this works out in the dominion mandate, knowledge, personality, sex, thoughts on heaven and hell, imagination, death, freedom, atonement, grace, discipline, justification, adoption, time, hope, peace, patience, conscience, confession, forgiveness, work, and worship. This is actually just an abbreviated list of the chapters of the book.
All of this is worked out in culture—and this is one of the most insightful aspects of the book. Rushdoony shows how the Christian “desire to improve himself and his world.” (Page 273) Whereas the unbeliever fails to “capitalize society” and their economy is marked by “exploitation” and “statism.” (Page 302)
Christians must reclaim psychology and place it within the sphere of theology (Page 335). Until we do so, we will have no answer to "mental illness” as the humanist psychologists have come to term unrepentant sin and autonomous man.
September 19, 2014
This book is classic Rushdoony: in both the good and bad senses. Taking a broad scope, this work is an examination of unbiblical psychologies against the backdrop of Thomas Boston's *Human Nature in its Fourfold State.* So far, so good. He begins with the thesis that God's making man as a mature adult sheds light on man's sin: it is also a revolt from maturity. Rush then uses this model to examine decaying American life.
Dominion is an inescapable category. Those societies and religions that take time seriously as a limited commodity and see history as one of dynamic movement are always progressive, conquering societies (e.g., the Puritans). Rush's wide reading in history and sociology sheds often delivers penetrating analyses.
Societies which reject godly dominion do not simply stagnate: they introduce false gods and false models of dominion. (Rushdoony wrote before the advent of video games and reality TV. It is good he is not around to see them).
The book ends with a perceptive chapter on heaven and the eternal state (and a not surprising, though unexpected, riff on Klaas Schilder).
The Bad:
Whenever Rushdoony is about to make a brilliant point on the "essence and nature" of man, the chapter abruptly stops. Other chapters--maybe half a dozen--could have been omitted and are repeated in numerous other books.
While Rushdoony has valuable insights on sex and man's revolt against maturity, I do wonder on how he knows some of this. He footnotes several adult magazine and even if it is "research," well, it's still adult magazines. It's like the guy saying, "Honestly dear, I"m only reading the articles."
On a more substantial note, his chapter on the Eternal Sabbath neglects and downplays the worship of God. He sees Sabbath primarily as cessation of rest and not worship. This makes sense, given Rush's own anti-ecclesial background.
Conclusion:
It is mostly well-written and engaging. Some chapters (e.g., "Time") are worth the price of the book. I read it in a day.
Dominion is an inescapable category. Those societies and religions that take time seriously as a limited commodity and see history as one of dynamic movement are always progressive, conquering societies (e.g., the Puritans). Rush's wide reading in history and sociology sheds often delivers penetrating analyses.
Societies which reject godly dominion do not simply stagnate: they introduce false gods and false models of dominion. (Rushdoony wrote before the advent of video games and reality TV. It is good he is not around to see them).
The book ends with a perceptive chapter on heaven and the eternal state (and a not surprising, though unexpected, riff on Klaas Schilder).
The Bad:
Whenever Rushdoony is about to make a brilliant point on the "essence and nature" of man, the chapter abruptly stops. Other chapters--maybe half a dozen--could have been omitted and are repeated in numerous other books.
While Rushdoony has valuable insights on sex and man's revolt against maturity, I do wonder on how he knows some of this. He footnotes several adult magazine and even if it is "research," well, it's still adult magazines. It's like the guy saying, "Honestly dear, I"m only reading the articles."
On a more substantial note, his chapter on the Eternal Sabbath neglects and downplays the worship of God. He sees Sabbath primarily as cessation of rest and not worship. This makes sense, given Rush's own anti-ecclesial background.
Conclusion:
It is mostly well-written and engaging. Some chapters (e.g., "Time") are worth the price of the book. I read it in a day.
January 12, 2019
Mostly rambling, incoherent, scattered, and poorly written. Some good points about the Doctrine of Man. Wouldn't recommend reading.
March 16, 2019
Rushdoony's attack on psychology.
January 5, 2021
Really good, but not what I was expecting. “Creationism and Psychology” was particularly good. Sometimes it seemed a bit abstract, but overall it was very good.
February 22, 2021
Worth reading to understand how psychology has impacted our thinking in the modern world. From a strongly Christian perspective.
August 23, 2022
An excellent book with a great piece by piece development of the Biblical view of man in both theological subjects of psychology and anthropology.
July 26, 2023
Books like there are reason why i'm pagan
August 1, 2025
Oh, so that’s how we got here.
March 14, 2017
A profound aid to self-evaluation. RJ Rushdoony's premise is that the correct way to understand man is not to examine the child, the imature, the savage, the deviant, or the pervet; the correct way to examine man is to understand man as mature man - as Adam - created with a dominion purpose in knowledge, righteous and holiness, along with Eve, his counterpart in dominion (for it is not good that man should be alone); and to understand mankind as fallen; and to understand his renewed calling in redemption as a part of new humanity under the New Adam, Jesus Christ. A discussion of Sabbath rest concludes the book, a fact unknown outside of Christ.
February 22, 2013
I'm not sure of the best way to sum up this book; the author delved into the vast autonomy of the mind of man, bringing the light of truth to bear on many dark issues. Rushdoony gives quotes from differing perspectives to show the basis and extent of mans philosophic systems and contrasts them with the wisdom drawn from godly men who have gone before. From the title, I was not expecting what I found in this book, but it was good and well worth the read; the subtitle, A Biblical Psychology of Man, I think comes closer to presenting the content and purpose of the book. For anyone wanting to study psychology, this would be a good place to start as he lays out a strong and clear warning against following "wisdom" of those who are in rebellion against God.
July 8, 2013
Still timely after many, many years.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews