Discussion question your group will work through:
1.Manning opens by describing the "impostor" — the false self we construct to survive, earn approval, and manage how others perceive us. In your own words, what is the impostor, and how does Manning distinguish it from simply being polite or putting your best foot forward?
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About This Study Guide
Brennan Manning's Abba's Child is a soul-searching invitation to abandon the exhausting performance of the "impostor" — the false self we construct to earn love, manage impressions, and hide our brokenness — and to rest instead in the radical, unearned love of God the Father. Drawing on Scripture, the desert fathers and mothers, contemplative prayer, and his own hard-won experience of grace, Manning argues that the single most transforming truth a person can internalize is this: God loves you as you are, not as you should be. The title comes from the Aramaic word Abba — the intimate, tender address Jesus used for his Father — and Manning contends that claiming our identity as Abba's children is not spiritual sentiment but the most courageous and countercultural act a broken human being can make.
This study guide is designed for use over ten weeks, either in a small group or in personal devotion. The recommended pattern for each week is: Read the assigned chapter slowly, perhaps twice; Journal your honest responses to a question or two before your group meets; then Discuss and Pray together using the questions and closing prayer provided. The questions are not designed to test comprehension — they are designed to create space for honesty. Some will feel uncomfortable. That discomfort is the point. Manning's deepest conviction is that we cannot receive what we will not admit we need, and the impostor's greatest trick is to keep us too guarded to receive grace.
By the end of this study, readers should expect not a tidy set of principles but something more unsettling and more beautiful: a deeper awareness of the places they hide from God, a growing willingness to come as they are, and a more settled confidence that the One who knows them completely loves them completely. As Manning writes, quoting his spiritual director, "God loves you as you are and not as you should be — because none of us is as we should be."
10-Week Schedule
- Week 1Introduction — The Impostor Unmasked7 questions
- Week 2Chapter 2 — The Beloved8 questions
- Week 3Chapter 3 — The Impostor7 questions
- Week 4Chapter 4 — Abba's Child7 questions
- Week 5Chapter 5 — The Pharisee and the Child7 questions
- Week 6Chapter 6 — Present Riches7 questions
- Week 7Chapter 7 — The Furious Longing of God7 questions
- Week 8Chapter 8 — The Victorious Limp7 questions
- Week 9Chapter 9 — Transforming Union7 questions
- Week 10Review & Reflection8 questions
Week 1: Introduction — The Impostor Unmasked
Free sampleRead the Introduction and Chapter 1 of Abba's Child. Key Scripture: Mark 14:36; Romans 8:15–16; Galatians 4:6.
1.Manning opens by describing the "impostor" — the false self we construct to survive, earn approval, and manage how others perceive us. In your own words, what is the impostor, and how does Manning distinguish it from simply being polite or putting your best foot forward?
2.Manning draws on his own story of alcoholism and shame to illustrate how the impostor develops. Why do you think vulnerability about personal failure is so rare — even in Christian communities — and what does Manning suggest that silence costs us?
3.The Aramaic word *Abba* carries connotations of warmth, safety, and intimacy — closer to "Daddy" than the formal "Father." How does this image of God differ from the picture of God you grew up with, or the one you default to when life is hard?
a.What would it change about your prayer life if you genuinely believed God welcomed you the way the father welcomed the prodigal son?
b.Where does your resistance to that image come from?
4.Manning asserts that the impostor is not merely a bad habit but a kind of spiritual bondage — a refusal to live in the truth of who God says we are. Do you agree? What keeps people trapped in the false self even after they intellectually accept the gospel?
5.The book's central thesis is that claiming our identity as "Abba's child" — as deeply and unconditionally loved — is the foundation for all genuine spiritual growth. Why might *receiving* love be harder for many people than *performing* religion?
6.Manning quotes his spiritual director's words: "God loves you as you are and not as you should be — because none of us is as we should be." What is your gut reaction to that sentence? Does it feel freeing, dangerous, too good to be true, or something else?
7.How does the truth of Romans 8:15–16 — that the Spirit enables us to cry "Abba, Father" — connect to Manning's argument about identity? What does it mean that our truest identity is something *given* to us by the Spirit rather than something we achieve?
Week 2: Chapter 2 — The Beloved
Read Chapter 2 of Abba's Child. Key Scripture: Mark 1:9–11; John 15:9; 1 John 3:1–2.
1.Manning draws heavily on Henri Nouwen's language of belovedness — the idea that our deepest identity is not "I am what I do," "I am what others say about me," or "I am what I have," but "I am the beloved of God." Which of Nouwen's three false identities do you find most personally seductive, and why?
Week 3: Chapter 3 — The Impostor
Read Chapter 3 of Abba's Child. Key Scripture: Luke 15:11–32; Colossians 3:3.
1.Manning draws on the work of Thomas Merton's concept of the "false self" — the self built on illusions of who we are apart from God. How does Manning's impostor relate to Merton's false self? What does it mean that the false self is not just a bad behavior but a counterfeit identity?
Week 4: Chapter 4 — Abba's Child
Read Chapter 4 of Abba's Child. Key Scripture: Romans 8:14–17; Galatians 3:26–4:7.
1.Manning centers this chapter on the concept of *adoption* — the theological reality that through Christ we are brought into the family of God not as servants or strangers but as children and heirs (Romans 8:15–17). What does the adoption metaphor add to your understanding of salvation beyond "forgiveness of sins"?
Week 5: Chapter 5 — The Pharisee and the Child
Read Chapter 5 of Abba's Child. Key Scripture: Luke 18:9–14; Matthew 23:1–12.
1.Manning uses the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9–14) as a lens for examining the "inner Pharisee" — the part of us that compares, measures, and judges. How does Jesus's shocking conclusion (the tax collector went home justified, not the Pharisee) subvert the religious logic of the crowd?
Week 6: Chapter 6 — Present Riches
Read Chapter 6 of Abba's Child. Key Scripture: Matthew 6:25–34; Psalm 46:10.
1.Manning argues that the impostor is essentially a creature of past regrets and future anxieties — it is never fully present. How does this connect to Jesus's teaching in Matthew 6 about not worrying about tomorrow? In what ways is living in the present moment an act of trust?
Week 7: Chapter 7 — The Furious Longing of God
Read Chapter 7 of Abba's Child. Key Scripture: Hosea 11:1–9; Luke 15:20; Romans 5:8.
1.Manning uses the phrase "the furious longing of God" to describe a love that is not polite or measured but passionate and relentlessly pursuing. How does this image of God compare with the God you imagine when you are at your lowest? Which image feels more real to you, and why?
Week 8: Chapter 8 — The Victorious Limp
Read Chapter 8 of Abba's Child. Key Scripture: Genesis 32:22–32; 2 Corinthians 12:9–10.
1.Manning uses Jacob's wrestling match with God at the Jabbok River (Genesis 32) as a central image: Jacob walks away with a blessing and a limp — and Manning argues you cannot have one without the other. What does it mean that the limp is not incidental to the blessing but part of it?
Week 9: Chapter 9 — Transforming Union
Read Chapter 9 of Abba's Child. Key Scripture: John 15:1–11; John 17:20–26; Galatians 2:20.
1.Manning describes "transforming union" in language drawn from the Christian mystical tradition — a deep, intimate, ongoing communion with God in which our very identity becomes rooted in His. How is this different from simply "having a relationship with God" in the way that phrase is commonly used in evangelical culture?
Week 10: Review & Reflection
Review your notes, journal entries, and any passages you marked throughout Abba's Child.
1.Looking back across the whole book, which single chapter, image, or quote landed most powerfully for you — and why? What nerve did it hit?
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