A Violent God-Image

"Theologian and psychotherapist Eugen Drewermann has been without question the most significant, the most prolific, and the best-selling theological writer in the German language for over the past twenty years." "This is the first full-length introduction to Drewermann in English and includes extensive quotations from his works. Drewermann's primary intuition is that Christianity has done violence to people by using fear as the primary motive for faith - fear of hell, fear of exclusion, fear of God. At the heart of Drewermann's nonviolent interpretation of key Christian beliefs is his analysis of the violent image of God that characterizes traditional interpretations of sin and the cross. It is this God-image opposed to human desires and self-realization, that sanctified the killings of millions of peoples in wars declared to be "just" and legitimated the violent exploitation of nonhuman nature and the aggressive economic exploitation of non-Christian cultures. This work is essential reading for biblical scholars, psychologists of religion, systematic theologians, ethicists, and pastoral theologians."--BOOK JACKET.