Malcolm Goldsmith

Of all the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) books listed in my library, this is easily the most distinctive. Parts I and II of Knowing Me, Knowing You explore the 16 personality types of the quasi-Jungian MBTI system in the usual fashion. But Part III is where the treasure's buried: it describes how MBTI can be used to understand and appreciate spiritual styles, including the way that one worships in community, prays in private, and perceives the divine.

Now, this book is put out by the show more (very mainstream) Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, so it's strongly flavoured by its Church of England origins. This means that the examples given in this book run the gamut from A to B: low-church Anglicanism to high-church Anglicanism! Nonetheless, it's possible to learn much, and to extrapolate to other spiritual communities and situations.

Even an unregenerate old Buddhist like myself has worked out that my (Tibetan Buddhist) coreligionists tend to hang out in the iNtuitive Thinking quadrant ... although admittedly, as an INTJ (Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging) type, I'm likelier to (1) look for the most obscure corner of that corner, (2) promptly stake it out, and (3) begin working out ways, from the margin, for making the whole system more efficient.

In any case, Knowing Me - Knowing You is written with real insight, not to mention a substantial dollop of self-deprecating English humour (fully appropriate, given that its title also belongs to a British TV comedy). If you can find it, read it! show less

A useful book when thinking about spirituality from the Myers-Briggs type point of view. There's a 'spirituality questionnaire' which I found quite thought-provoking; I wasn't sure where all the questions were going, but it did correctly give me my type (INFJ). The different chapters explore aspects of relationship to God, looking at why some people enjoy lively church services, while others prefer solitary retreats; some need icons and candles to help them focus, others find them a show more distraction.

The explanations as related to the different functions (thinking, feeling, sensing and intuition) were a bit basic. I felt them rather lacking in that they didn't really mention the significant differences between the Introverted and Extraverted uses of each. But that's really my only gripe with the book. The writer didn't give much time to anecdotes or stories, but then he's a self-confessed ENTP, so the main focus was on the theories themselves.

I don't think I learned anything new, although I certainly thought about some aspects of the Christian life in a slightly different light. Overall, though, it was a good reminder of how we are all created so differently, with different strengths and weaknesses, and how important it is to honour those differences in our brothers and sisters. Recommended. show less