Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect

by John Inazu, Tish Harrison Warren (Foreword by)

Overview

Are you discouraged by our divided, angry culture, where even listening to a different perspective sometimes feels impossible? If so, you're not alone, and it doesn't have to be this way. Learning to Disagree reveals the surprising path to learning how to disagree in ways that build new bridges with our neighbors, coworkers, and loved ones--and help us find better ways to live joyfully in a complex society.

In a tense cultural climate, is it possible to disagree productively and respectfully without compromising our convictions? Spanning a range of challenging issues--including critical race theory, sexual assault, campus protests, and clashes over religious freedom--highly regarded thought leader and law professor John Inazu helps us engage honestly and empathetically with people whose viewpoints we find strange, wrong, or even dangerous.

As a constitutional scholar, legal expert, and former litigator, John has spent his career learning how to disagree well with other people. In Learning to Disagree, John shares memorable stories and draws on the practices that legal training imparts--seeing the complexity in every issue and inhabiting the mindset of an opposing point of view--to help us handle daily encounters and lifelong relationships with those who see life very differently than we do.

This groundbreaking, poignant, and highly practical book equips us to:

• Understand what holds us back from healthy disagreement
• Learn specific, start-today strategies for dialoguing clearly and authentically
• Move from stuck, broken disagreements to mature, healthy disagreements
• Cultivate empathy as a core skill for our personal lives and our whole society

 

If you are feeling exhausted from the tattered state of dialogue in your social media feed, around the country, and in daily conversations, you're not alone. Discover a more connected life while still maintaining the strength of your convictions through this unique, often-humorous, thought-provoking, and ultimately life-changing exploration of the best way to disagree.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310368021
Publisher:	Zondervan
Publication date:	04/02/2024
Sold by:	HarperCollins Publishing
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	191,324
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

John Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis. He teaches criminal law, law and religion, and various First Amendment courses. He writes and speaks frequently to general audiences about pluralism, assembly, free speech, religious freedom, and other issues. John has written three books and published opinion pieces in the Washington Post, Atlantic, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, USA Today, Newsweek, and CNN. He is also the founder of the Carver Project and the Legal Vocation Fellowship and is a senior fellow with Interfaith America.

Editorial Reviews

02/19/2024

Inazu (Uncommon Ground), a professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, draws on his 12 years in the classroom for solid lessons on handling disagreements in this helpful guide. Much of his wisdom is “simple stuff that’s hard to put into practice.” For example, he advises readers to remain empathetic yet committed to their beliefs; use impasses to “deepen your understanding of what’s at stake”; and prioritize the “person over the problem” even when it takes time and energy. Inazu learned the latter lesson firsthand when he impatiently translated a lengthy fight with his wife into billable hours (“Do you realize how much money this argument just cost us?”). More time is spent unpacking communication issues than offering practical solutions, and those provided can be vague, as when Inazu recommends “asking an appropriately personal question rather than making all of your impersonal relationships purely transactional” without providing an example of such a query or how to work it into conversation. Still, the balanced mix of logic and compassion will help readers better understand how human nature informs conflict. It’s a good starting point for those looking to extend an olive branch. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

A wonderful, quirky, beautifully written, and often quite funny ode to learning how to live with deep differences. I absolutely loved this book. John Inazu writes with the kind of verve, personality, and attention to character that made me feel like I was reading a novel. Unlike most books, this one might actually change how you argue, fight, love, and even hope. It's that good. Shadi Hamid, columnist and editorial board member, Washington Post; author, The Problem of Democracy

Not only helpful, but an absolute delight to read. In a time when there are so few examples of nuance and compassion, John Inazu's voice is one to pay close attention to. Justin Whitmel Earley, business lawyer; speaker; bestselling author, Made for People and Habits of the Household

This wonderful, deeply personal, highly entertaining book takes readers inside the brilliant mind and loving heart of an outstanding legal scholar who wants us to grow genuine friendships, even when we have principled disagreements. Here John Inazu shares everyday encounters from law classrooms, faculty offices, local coffee shops, and life at home with his family to illustrate how challenging it is to show empathy, pursue reconciliation, and offer forgiveness in today's polarized society. Rather than demonizing people who think differently or backing away from hard conversations on divisive moral issues—the way many people do—Inazu shows us how to move into today's cultural conflicts with greater charity. Philip Ryken, president, Wheaton College

Using his law school classroom and personal anecdotes, John Inazu highlights the values of empathy, compassion, forgiveness, and looking for the good in others as some of the most important tools for navigating disagreements in ways that do not dehumanize those whose viewpoints may be different from one's own. As a college president whose role is to cultivate a campus environment that welcomes and supports a multitude of perspectives, I find Learning to Disagree to be a valuable resource for anyone seeking better dialogue across differences. Lori S. White, Ph D, president, De Pauw University

From the Publisher