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This book attempts to solve the problem of Isaac's sacrifice by Abraham. Like the previous works of its author, it shows vast erudition and sparkling wit.
Reik supposes that the manifest story represents an attempt by the priestly editors in the Ninth Century B.C. to put an end to the flourishing custom of child sacrifice. To support their effort they attributed to the God of their mythical ancestors their own abhorrence of this custom. Archeological data indicate that child sacrifice as such did not exist among the nomadic desert tribes. Reik concludes that the repressed content of Isaac's sacrifice is the rite of initiation at puberty. He points out the parallels in the stories of Isaac and Christ. He stresses the similarity of Issac's 'miraculous' and Christ's 'virginal' births. He states that the binding of Isaac to the altar is analogous to the Crucifixion. They are, in his opinion, the manifestations of a repressed basic initiation rite. Reik sums up: 'The prehistoric culture of the Jews was built on the superstructure of primitive initiation'. This work is open to criticism by the psychoanalyst at four crucial points.
1Any phase or rite of a religion is the manifestation of several instinctual and ego-developmental stages. Even Reik's oversimplified interpretation indicates the presence of several libidinal phases in the story as well as the condensation of hetero- and homosexual object relationships on various developmental levels. Such an assumption as Reik's that a whole religion hinges on a certain