SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif., June 5, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The 9/11 tragedy and its lingering aftershocks remain rooted in everyone's memories. We are not likely to forget the extremes that people go through for the sake of their "messiah." The Messianic Imperative: Scourge or Savior, a study by Joseph Abrahams, M.D., explores the concept of "messianism" and its pivotal role in the survival of civilization.
Originally written as a scholarly work of religious and psychiatric import, The Messianic Imperative: Scourge or Savior was transformed into a thought-provoking chronicle on messianism to the task of survival of our civilization following the devastating 9/11 tragedy. The core motivations of widely disparate people -- Islamic terrorists, Israeli settlers, and American fundamentalists -- are, in their purest form, "messianic" in nature. These people are positioned to move the world towards a disaster long depicted in apocalyptic terms on the Plains of Abraham, but now also present in our midst.
A degree of self-sacrifice is present in messianism, ranging from the purely spiritual to full expression in the Islamic terrorist who glories in a physical immolation that leads to eternal life. The crucial issue for the rest of us lies in its imperative nature, calling for the termination of our lives. Can we reach such people, who live in these other spiritual worlds, and who threaten to evict us from ours? They live in the certitude and rectitude of their cause, and are intolerant of the ambiguity of modern civilization. Their certitude lies in a strangely similar belief in a messenger of God who brings tidings of the End of Days on earth, and a coming glory in a heavenly company, populated by God and the principal figures of their religion. Each of these religions has its own visionary, man of God, or messiah, or extant to come.
In this startling work, the author contends that the key to reaching such imbued people, so alienated from the rest of us, is through utilization of the little we know of reaching alienated individuals and groups. That knowledge has been chiefly developed in asylums by the original alienists, psychiatrists, also the social and political sciences and the pastoral discipline. The Messianic Imperative: Scourge or Savior is offered as Abraham's contribution to that study. More so, it is offered as a journey into unfamiliar terrain. It may hopefully lead to a manual for action on the part of people, worldwide, alert to the current danger, who wish to contribute to the world family aborning in these perilous times.
About the Author
Dr. Joseph Abrahams has worked for a half century on the frontiers of psychoanalysis and grassroots politics. There he detected a spiritual component he described as messianism, crucial to the treatment of sickness and maintenance of health. He first centered the inquiry on messianism to his own spiritual life, achieving an understanding sufficient to facilitate application elsewhere. It led to successful outcomes in his practice and political groups. Now, post 9/11, mastery of the messianic imperative appears central to our survival as a democracy. 90, he continues research in Central California with his wife and collaborator, Elisabeth.
The Messianic Imperative * by Joseph Abrahams, M.D.
SCOURGE OR SAVIOR
Publication Date: May 3, 2007
Trade Paperback; $20.99; 174 pages; 978-1-4257-2192-3
Cloth Hardback; $30.99; 174 pages; 978-1-4257-2193-0
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