The divine mind
Subtitle: exploring the psychological history of God's inner journey
By: Michael Gellert
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 286
ISBN-13: 9781633883178
Subjects: Religious Psychology; God
Description: A Jungian psychoanalyst with a background in Judaism and Zen Buddhism explores the history of God concepts in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions. This book is about the Abrahamic God's inner journey, an epic that begins in the Hebrew Bible-the common source of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This God emerges as a living, textured personality as tormented as a Shakespearean character and as divided against humanity as the devil who personifies his dark side. Yet in heroic fashion, he embarks on a journey to greater consciousness, stretching into himself in the Talmud, New Testament, Qur'an, and Gnostic writings. Then finally, with and through the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic mystics, he discovers his true self as the absolute Godhead. He takes up residence in their psyches as their own Divine Mind or true self. The book suggests that what God learned from his journey might be something that we in turn could learn from and that could help us at the dawn of the twenty-first century. In this way, God's inner journey becomes a metaphor for our own. Michael Gellert, a Jungian psychoanalyst, treats this story and the sacred writings that convey it as psychological facts-as expressions of the human psyche-regardless of whether or not God actually exists. He shows how the Hebrew Bible presents God as a primitive, barbaric tribal war god while centuries later the mystics portray him as their innermost essence and emptied of all projected, external, anthropomorphic images. Thus, God's inner journey and the evolution of human consciousness-his story and ours-parallel each other and are integrally related. Rich in historical detail and psychological insights, this is a book that will be welcomed by seekers of every background and orientation.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-264) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Part I. In the beginning. The irrational nature of God; title: Divine wrath; title: Divine genocide; title: God's Apocalyptic fever; title: God's wake-up call; title: The return of wisdom; title: God's PTSD and other afflictions; title: From trauma to redemption; title: Part II. In the middle. The flowering of wisdom; title: The kingdom of God within; title: The face that is everywhere; title: The rock of the self; title: Part III. And in the endlessness. The splendor of absolute nothingness; title: The incarnation that is always happening; title: The beloved; title: Reframing the problem of evil; title: Conclusion : God's journey as a metaphor for our own; title: Appendix I. God in the Hebrew Bible vs. the Old Testament; title: Appendix II. Why was nothingness first discovered in the east?