Explores how religious believers can—and why they should—engage the work of Sigmund Freud, despite his well-known dismissal of faith.
Whether Sigmund Freud’s theory precludes serious engagement with psychoanalytic theory for those professing faith in the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition has been controversial for years. Coming to terms with Freud’s theory has proved difficult for religious believers because of his stance that religious faith is little more than psychological projection. Building on the work of philosopher and theologian Paul Ricoeur, psychoanalyst Ana-Maria Rizzuto, and feminist theorist Judith Van Herik, author Kirk A. Bingaman demonstrates that it is possible and even advantageous for believers to hold their religious faith in dialectical tension with psychoanalysis. Bingaman shows how Freud’s critique of religion can enrich and strengthen, rather than destroy, the faith of the believer. What emerges from the author’s argument is a creative method for living within the emotional and spiritual tension that develops whenever our belief system is challenged or disrupted.
“As an ordained minister and pastoral counselor, Bingaman’s concerns are never far from the practice of caregiving with real people suffering from real-life problems. As a result, he writes with a refreshing attention to the pragmatic implications of his theoretical analyses.” — Journal of Religion and Health
“…Bingaman aims at establishing anew the relevance of the psychoanalytic critique of religion.” — Religious Studies Review
“Bingaman argues that, contrary to popular thought, Freudian theory does offer something positive for the religious believer. In Freud and Faith, Bingaman builds on the works of Ricoeur, Rizzuto, and Van Herik to demonstrate the benefit for religious believers of engagement with Freud.” — Science & Technology News
“Bingaman reiterates the central question asked by Paul Ricoeur in Freud and Philosophy: Can psychoanalysis purify the faith of religious believers? Ricoeur argued more than three decades ago that religious believers are obligated to ‘converse’ with Freud, to expose religious faith to a Freudian hermeneutics of suspicion. Bingaman knows how difficult this conversation can be, yet he also knows how necessary it has become. He extends Ricoeur’s question to the psychical lives of believers and to the specific projects of theological educators, parish ministers, pastoral counselors, and spiritual directors.” — from the Foreword by Diane Jonte-Pace
“Bingaman has made an important contribution by presenting Rizzuto, Ricoeur, and Van Herik as a group. This is a new and useful development in the ‘Freud and religion’ literature.” — Donald Capps, coeditor of On Losing the Soul: Essays in the Social Psychology of Religion
Kirk A. Bingaman is Director of Satellite Offices for the Lloyd Center Pastoral Counseling Service, an Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at San Francisco Theological Seminary, and an ordained Presbyterian minister.
