Resource Publications / Wipf and Stock Publishers
Psyche, Soul, and Spirit Interdisciplinary Essays
Interdisciplinary Essays
by Rachel Berghash and Katherine Jillson
This book consists of ten interdisciplinary essays that include material from religion, spirituality, philosophy, psychology, and related poetry. The authors make use of source material of the great religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, eliciting their spiritual dimension; philosophers such A. N Whitehead and George Santayana; psychoanalysts such as Preston G. Mclean, D. W. Winnicott, Melanie Klein, and Michael Eigen; and poets such as William Carlos Williams, Rilke, and Haiku poets.
These essays use a philosophical method of making distinctions to clarify key concepts. Religion and spirituality are distinguished in depth. The authors relate psychological, religious, and spiritual ideas and apply concepts to personal and social issues.
The book is unusual in that the approach is not only intellectual, but also is meant to be used in daily life. The notions gleaned from studies of religion, philosophy, and psychology can be applied to personal and social issues. The integration of the intellectual, religious, and spiritual life and life in general can be an antidote to the daily fragmented lives of people—professionals in religion, psychology, and philosophy as well as lay people.
“Berghash and Jillson have given us a journey of mind and heart, a road into ourselves and sensitivity to others. They bring to the fore our concern with interiority and ways to touch and further it. You will feel you are walking with caring leaders who open doors to places that, perhaps without knowing it, you have always wanted to go."
—Michael Eigen, author of Image, Sense, Infinities, and Everyday Life
"Berghash and Jillson's book is exemplary in laying bare a hidden secret beyond world religions. . . . The book seems to portend the arrival of a fresh kind of cultural research in academia."
—Admiel Kosman, Professor of Talmud, University of Potsdam and Geiger College
"In Psyche, Soul, and Spirit the authors identify, in essay form, essential attributes that build character. Spiritual maturity, psychological integrity, and constant inner effort mark the lives of saintly persons who have had world- changing effect. A handbook for a person of any faith or philosophy, this is a book to read more than once."
—W. Kurt von Roeschlaub, STM
"Superbly written, concisely organized, and deeply compelling, Psyche, Soul, and Spirit covers a panoramic view of many luminaries in psychoanalysis, philosophy, science, and religion. This is done in the service of understanding such people and themes in context and, further, to explore their import for learning and growth, individually and collectively."
—Brent Potter, author of Elements of Self-Destruction
"An inspiring, even breathtaking book. Berghash and Jillson draw on the widest range of the most profound sages of the human soul—Hasidic masters, Tibetan monks, Hebrew prophets, Christian mystics, Freudian psychoanalysts, English poets—with one goal: to explore our diverse struggles with obstacles and adversaries to spiritual growth."
—Nathaniel Berman, Author; Rahel Varnhagen Professor of International Affairs, Law, and Modern Culture, Cogut Center for the Humanities, Brown University