Despite its title, WHAT DOES JESUS SEE IN YOU? (A Guide to Self-Discovery) is not your typical Christian self-help book. It doesn’t employ religious abstractions or ministerial rhetoric. Authors Conrad and Coleen Aquino don’t insist that readers accept Jesus to be their savior as a precondition for contentment. In the book’s afterword, they state that the question of whether Jesus was the son of God is “between you and whatever you believe about the universe”—and they acknowledge that much of what people have learned about Jesus is “tangled up with religious baggage.”

What they set out to do is demonstrate how Jesus’ “practical wisdom” can be directly applied to a person’s life without the associated dogma. They are, in their words, going for a combination of “spiritual, philosophical, and practical psychology.” To that end, they choose a secular rather than a religious foundation for their book, namely Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Early on the authors pose a series of multiple-choice questions designed to help readers identify their “primary drive” (e.g., love, acceptance, purpose, safety, etc.), which is then used as a reference point for the remainder of the book. They present different scenarios and attempt to demonstrate how people’s primary drives dictate their responses, and moreover how those responses perpetuate cycles of negative or harmful behavior. Readers can break free from these behavioral patterns by embracing the “truth” as taught by Jesus.

While mechanically sound and meticulously organized, WHAT DOES JESUS SEE IN YOU? is not without faults. The major one is a lack of variety in its references. By drawing on only a few individuals—namely Jesus, Maslow, and a writer called Mike Foster—for their psychological and philosophical insights, Coleen and Conrad Aquino have committed themselves to an overly narrow perspective. Broadening the range of sources would have helped to shore up their arguments and round out their thesis.

To be clear, WHAT DOES JESUS SEE IN YOU? does have a religious underpinning. Each chapter includes an “opening” and “closing” prayer, biblical miracles are evoked, and Jesus is portrayed as an omniscient being that knows everything about you. But that content is balanced by the book’s psychological framework and emphasis on providing real-world examples to illustrate the authors’ points. The result is a book that may appeal to Christians and non-Christians alike.

Largely secular in its approach, WHAT DOES JESUS SEE IN YOU? (A Guide to Self-Discovery) by Conrad and Coleen Aquino is a Christian-centric book that can potentially engage a diverse audience.

~ Michael Howard for IndieReader