Is the causative-passive necessary here

Question

The following Dialogue:

A: この本、もう読んだんですか。
B: ええ、とてもよかったですよ。家族の大切さをあらためて考えさせられました。

With this causative passive, I'd translate it like this:

A: Have you already read this book?
B: Yes, it was very good. I was made thinking about the value of family over and over again.

Now the following question: Would it be possible to change the bold predicative into active mood without changing or adding anything else in the sentence? So that it translates into:

A: Have you already read this book?
B: Yes, it was very good. It made me think about the value of family over and over again.

Or would the sentence become ambigious then without any changes/additions?

Answer 1

Yes, I think the natural English translation of this sentence would be "It made me think ...".

Simply, この本は私に家族の大切さを考えさせました sounds less natural in Japanese, although understandable, because the Japanese language tends to dislike inanimate subjects. You will see ～(ら)れる used more often than you would use the passive voice in English.

Related: In Japanese, can we say an object asks a question?