Synopses & Reviews
In
Creating a Human World, Trappist monk and scholar Ernest Daniel Carrere explores what it means to be fully human, to live in a shared world, and to resist the easy tendency to flee reality and seek pleasure in material pursuits. To do so he examines the writings of three great modern thinkers—Sigmund Freud, Martin Heidegger, and Søren Kierkegaard—and proposes a new reading of their work in light of his own understanding of New Testament teachings.
Carrere elucidates the paradoxical spiritual truth that salvation lies not in an escape from humanity, but in embracing it. An interdisciplinary tour de force, this book will appeal to anyone interested in philosophy, psychology, religion, or cultural anthropology.
About the Author
Ernest Daniel Carrere has been a Trappist monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani for over thirty years. He holds a doctorate in psychological and religious anthropology from Emory University and a JD from Tulane University.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments Fore-Sight Prologue 1. To Be or Not to Be
Ego, Eros, and the Pleasure Principle 2. Symbiosis and Seduction
Kierkegaard, Freud, and das Man 3. Individual Integrity
Heidegger's Dasein 4. The Trauma of Death
Studies on Hysteria 5. Primordial Finitude
Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety 6. Dynamics of Rejection and Retrieval
Freud and Heidegger 7. A Shared World
Exodus and Beyond 8. Celebrations
Opening Horizons and Heidegger's Way 9. Embracing the Earth
Kierkegaard and Kenosis 10. Beginning Anew
Envoi and Cross-Cultural Entrée NotesBibliographyIndex