Acknowledgments ; Chapter One WHY THIS BOOK? : AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL REFLECTIONS ; Chapter Two FAITH, REVELATION, AND REASON ; Chapter Three JEWISH BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM ; Chapter Four CHRISTIAN BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM ; Chapter Five MUSLIM KORANIC FUNDAMENTALISM ; Chapter Six ACQUIRING AND PROTECTING UNREASONABLE BELIEFS ; Chapter Seven ON DEFUNDAMENTALIZING FUNDAMENTALISTS ; Notes ; Bibliography ; Name Index ; Subject Index
Solomon Schimmel is Professor of Jewish Education and Psychology at Hebrew College. He is the author of The Seven Deadly Sins: Jewish, Christian, and Classical Reflections on Human Psychology and Wounds Not Healed by Time: The Power of Repentance and Forgiveness.
"This is a long-overdue book about a pressing subject by a
brilliant writer qualified not only by his professional expertise
but by his own life experiences. The question of why otherwise
thoughtful people accept irrational religious fundamentalism is a
difficult one to address in our age of oversensitivity about
challenging deeply held religious beliefs. But Schimmel confronts
the challenge head- on -- respectfully, intelligently, and with the
insights that
have long characterized his work. This is a must-read for all
thinking people who respect religious diversity." --Alan
Dershowitz
"Very few books face honestly the social and cultural persistence
of what Professor Schimmel here labels the 'tenacity of
unreasonable beliefs.' Judaism, Christianity, and Islam --
sometimes called collectively the 'religions of the book' -- have
developed very different approaches to the Abrahamic tradition. In
these approaches, interpretation, belief, and action come together
in subtle and often irrational ways. This is a profoundly
insightful and
illuminating work which asks the reader to consider the
correspondence between irrational belief and human behavior in a
thoughtful, precise, and eloquent way. It is an indispensable
resource for anyone
interested in the nature of religiously based violence." --R.
Joseph Hoffmann, Chair, The Committee for the Scientific
Examination of Religion
"The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs addresses questions about the
psychology of religious fundamentalism in a most penetrating and
enlightening manner, from perspectives that are neglected in most
of the literature on the subject -- including anthropology,
evolutionary and social psychology, and philosophy. Schimmel
provides us with a sophisticated understanding of the mentality of
Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptural fundamentalists, and of
why
and how they tenaciously cling to beliefs that have failed the
tests of experience, scholarship and reason -- and the dangers of
their doing so. The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs is an
essential read for
anyone concerned about defending Western democracy in its
ideological struggle against the values, vices, and violence of
radical Islam. --Ibn Warraq, author of Why I Am Not a Muslim and
Defending the West
"Schimmel's is a fresh voice in the ongoing critique of
fundamentalism. ...The book represents an intelligent inquiry into
the cognitive world of secular modernity's religious discontents
that is both fearlessly frank and unusually empathetic.
[Schimmel's] sensitivity to the individual fundamentalist's
socialization process and to the storied loss of faith that
profoundly shapes ex-fundamentalists makes the book a highly
original contribution to
interdisciplinary fundamentalismstudies. Scripture scholars,
comparativists, and Christian readers unacquainted with yeshiva-
based Jewish intellectual life will profit from this provocative
work." --Theological Studies
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
