While Christians tend to avoid unhealthy practices such as smoking, drinking alcohol, drug use and promiscuity, they often disregard attitudes that can produce illness. Missionary physician Dr. Harold Paul Adolph contends that by adjusting his or her outlook to become a "holystic" one, a person can follow God and life instead of opting for sin and sickness. Although acknowledging that not every illness is spiritually or psychologically induced, Adolph examines in Holyistic Attitudes how hatred, guilt, fear, and discontent can wreak havoc on a person's body. He explores the results of each attitude with numerous Scripture verses and examples drawn from the Bible, history, and his own experiences in Africa, Asia and America. In each section, Adolph provides a spiritual prescription to help eliminate or improve the attitude and thus revitalize the body.
After looking at what can adversely affect health, Adolph moves on to examine "concepts, thoughts, and dispositions that can strengthen our spiritual health." He points out that developing healthy thoughts is not always easy or immediate, but it can be done with God's help, as many people can testify. Adolph encourages the reader to develop a world view that embraces the God of the Bible--the God who "is willing and able to reach out to us at all times."
Most of all, Adolph challenges each person to find God's plan for his or her life. He asserts, "By striving to make our work and activities God-planned, God-purposed, God-timed and even God-interrupted, our lives will be infused with a sense of God's destiny for us." Though such a goal seems almost unattainable, this book provides practical steps to help each reader along the way to better health.
