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Overview
Theologian and psychotherapist Eugen Drewermann has been the most significant, prolific and bestselling theological writer in the German language over the past quarter century. Drewermann shows that religion, including Christianity, turns violent mentally, spiritually, and even physically if it uses fear as a motive for faith— fear of exclusion from the group, fear of hell and fear of God. This is the first full-length introduction to Drewermann in English.
'Powerful... a profoundly more human cast to otherwise abstract theological propositions... almost revolutionary in its apertura to new and refreshing vistas in thinking about basic theological issues.' W. W. Meissner, S.J., M.D. in Horizons
Synopsis
Theologian and psychotherapist Eugen Drewermann is probably the best-selling religious writer in Europe over the past quarter century. The sheer enormity of his principal books-The Cleric (900 pp.), The Structure of Evil (1969 pp.), Faith in Freedom: Depth Psychology and Dogmatics (720), Depth Psychology and Exegesis (2 vols.), and Psychoanalysis and Moral Theology (2 vols.)-has thwarted publication of his works in English translation to date. Drewermann's scathing attack on the clerical mentality, ideology, and culture (The Cleric), based on his psychotherapeutic work with clergy, led to his being silenced by Roman Catholic authorities in 1991 and suspended from the priesthood in 1992.
This is the first full-length introduction to Drewermann in English and includes extensive quotations from his works. Drewermann's primary intuition is that Christianity has done violence to people by using fear as the primary motive for faith-fear of hell, fear of exclusion, fear of God. At the heart of Drewermann's nonviolent interpretation of key Christian beliefs is his analysis of a violent image of God that characterizes traditional interpretations of sin and the cross. It is this God image, opposed to human desires and self-realization, that sanctified the killings of millions of peoples in wars declared to be "just" and legitimated the violent exploitation of nonhuman nature and the aggressive economic exploitation of non-Christian cultures.
Review of Biblical Literature
"This first full-length volume in English on the thought of Eugen Drewermann is a welcome and long-overdue introduction to the groundbreaking work of the most prolific theological writer in the German language over the past twenty years.... We are indebted to Beier for undertaking a translation task only a native German speaker could accomplish, given the complexity and technicality of Drewermann s prose."