The Religious Imagination: A Study in Psychoanalysis and Jewish Theology

xx, 246 pp. "This rich exploration of the world of rabbinic myth and legend by the author of After Auschwitz delves into the origins of Judaeo-Christian tradition and their relevance to religious existence in our times. The book draws a psychological portrait of the Jewish community as it reacted to defeat by the Romans almost two thousand years ago, a portrait that exposes many of the motivations and anxieties that lie at the base of the religious impulse. Dr. Rubenstein assumes that legend and myth express the unconscious strivings of the group as dreams do for the individual. This thesis is developed in reference to the work of Freud, Erik Erikson and Gordon Allport. Christian and Jewish traditions, while very much concerned with the same set of psychological problems, in the development of personality, in sexuality, aggression, family life and death, differ radically in their ways of handling them. In the face of these divergences Rabbi Rubenstein affirms the value of religious ritual and the sense of community as important cultural and psychological components of a healthy human life."