You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This is a fascinating, informative, and timely book, written from an interdisciplinary perspective, which addresses our grave concerns about the global rise of violence fuelled by religious fervors, a recurrent phenomenon which Slipp studies and analyzes from a historical perspective. He is a passionate scholar who examines his subjects in the context of their time, only to be excited by his discoveries, which invariably open up new paths of investigation. His delight and excitement in his writing journey infect his readers. Reading the book is very rewarding. We not only experience the events in historical time, but also converse with similar events as they have recurred throughout time: Jesus' egalitarian attitude to women leads to Paul's unquestioned view of women as inferior to men, to Freud's ambivalence about women, and Simone de Beauvoir, who was in the vanguard of the movement for women's liberation.
Extreme fundamentalist religious beliefs are again entering the world stage of power politics. At home the religious right seems to be gaining momentum and we have to fight over issues of abortion, marriage, teaching evolution, and other anti-humanistic prejudices. Slipp delves into these historically ever-present phenomena by focusing on Jesus Christ and Sigmund Freud. Though living one thousand years apart, they both were healers and in their different ways tried to stop the abuse of power when religion and politics were joined. Freud tried