A Violent God-Image: An Introduction to the Work of Eugen Drewermann

by Matthias Beier

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826418357
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/02/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.82(d)

About the Author

Matthias Beier is coordinator of the Doctor of Ministry Program in Pastoral Care and Counseling at Drew Theological School and has a private psychoanalytic practice in New York City. He teaches at both Drew and Fordham Universities.

What People are Saying About This

W. W. Meissner

"A Violent God-image is the first theological treatment I have seen that takes the integration of psychoanalysis and religion seriously. The result is a profoundly more human cast to otherwise abstract theological propositions.... Drewermann’s approach ... opens the way to a potential new era of theological reflection centered on the integration of theological principles and doctrines with fundamental human concerns and psychic realities.... I would recommend Beier’s treatise for its inherent interest and for its potential for stimulating more psychologically meaningful theological reflection."
—author of Psychoanalysis and Religious Experience and Treatment of Patients in the Borderline Spectrum

John Shelby Spong

"A fascinating book! Beier brings to an English-speaking audience a profound and challenging Christian voice from Germany. In his homeland that voice has elicited the twin responses of excitement from a reading public that made his works bestsellers and of fear from his church’s hierarchy that sought to silence him. The book will be welcomed by those who labor on that frontier where faith and life collide."
—author of A New Christianity for a New World

Walter Wink

"Our time has known two thinkers of dazzling brilliance: the German Eugen Drewermann and the French René Girard. Girard’s thought has penetrated numerous fields: literary criticism, psychoanalysis, economics, and, not least, theology. Though a sensation in Europe, Drewermann is virtually unknown in America, due to the lack of translation. Matthias Beier has done the next best thing: he has provided a condensation and commentary that makes Drewermann’s thought accessible, in hopes that some enterprising press will see to the publication of more by this seminal thinker."
—author of The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of Man

Editorial Reviews

"Eugen Drewermann, a German Scholar, whose difficult but very profound work has been a sensation in Europe but which has been slow to arrive on the American intellectual scene, has been compared to the French philosopher Rene Girard, whose theories on the nature and causes of violence have influenced nearly every field of the humanities. Drewemann's thought, which also deals with the most important issues of our time, violence and it's relation to religion, is finally made accessible to American readers by Matthias Beier in his book, "A Violent God Image: An Introduction to the Work of Eugen Drewermann" published by Continuum in 2004. Beier draws from his encyclopedic knowledge of Drewermann's work in biblical studies, theology, depth psychology, existential philosophy and pastoral practice to present the synthesis of Drewermann's thought on the subject of Genesis and Christianity's violent God-image and how that God image functions as a cause and legitimation of personal pathology, social violence, war and destruction of nature. Beier's synthesis is scrupulously faithful to Drewermann's thought and includes extensive translations from original text. This is a deeply thought-provoking book which challenged our understanding of original sin, the crucifixion of Jesus, church authority and the political and cultural givens which control so much of our thought and behavior in society and church." -Professor Sandra Schneiders, Graduate Theological Union

From the Publisher

"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."

Review of Biblical Literature