Bright Days, Dark Nights (Elizabeth Ruth Skoglund)

Those who experience emotional pain- depression, anxiety, loneliness, etc.- are often stigmatized by both Christians and nonbelievers in our society.  The former sometimes claim such troubles are the result of sin, and thus require repentance rather than assistance.  In Bright Days, Dark Nights, author Elizabeth Skoglund counters that belief and demonstrates that, as with physical ailments, mental/emotional problems can be unavoidable and even expected in the lives of many- even of Christians.  Her primary example is the famous Christian preacher Charles Spurgeon, from whom she quotes liberally throughout the book, giving evidence that he not only sympathized with those so suffering, but also that he himself had similar struggles.

This book makes a lot of excellent points, but I grew to dislike the format.  Skoglund's main ideas are:
1) "emotional problems are not necessarily the result of sin, and thus deserve compassion, understanding, and assistance from other believers"
2) "Charles Spurgeon agrees with this, and I'll prove it by providing page after page of relevant quotes from him"
3) "Charles Spurgeon's quotes point us to God, and we should take comfort in our tribulations knowing that we're not alone- God is with us, loves us, and has experienced the same as Christ"

I agree with all of these points- no problems there.  But, the book has the following problems:
1) Too many quotes by Spurgeon.  I estimate 70% of the book is just regurgitated Spurgeon.  Paragraph after paragraph of "Spurgeon says . . . [insert quote]." He's a fantastic preacher, but it's too much, especially because:
2) The book is far too long for the points it makes.  Many of the quotes convey similar or identical ideas in marginally different ways, from slightly different angles.  It gets to feel like endless repetition.
3) I started to feel like Skoglund was saying "you should agree with this point of view because Spurgeon does."  Again, he's a great preacher, but he's not God.

Overall, good points raise this to an acceptable grade, but there are probably far better ways of conveying them.

Rating: B-