The revolt commanded by Lucifer in the heaven marked a start in the cosmology of Christianity. Although scholars agree the problem of evilness as one of the most vivid contradictions of Catholic Church, it is clear that God forgives its life. Unlike other traditions or mythologies where the Gods kill the dissidents or inflict unbearable torments, Judaism and Christianity continue the dialectic ...

This paper examines the similarities and differences between ideas deriving from Rabbinic and mystical Judaism and psychoanalytic concepts. It will present material both from the Talmud and the Kabbalah (particularly the Zohar and Lurianic Kabbalistic writings). While not arguing necessarily for any historical continuity it explores how Jewish ideas provide a deep structure underlying psychoana...

Religious symptoms have been recognized as a presentation of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) for centuries. The two main treatment strategies for OCD, cognitive behavior therapy (exposure and response prevention [ERP]), and SSRIs have been shown to be effective in religious OCD. The presentation of religious OCD within formal prayer, reported in Judaism and Islam, poses special challenges o...

The paper examines the impact of genetic research on the religious identity of the Bene Israel Indian Jewish community and the Lemba Judaising group of southern Africa. It demonstrates how DNA tests which happened to support the possibility of the communities' legends of origin affected their self-perception, the way they are viewed by their neighbors, and their image in the West. It is argued ...

The modern sociology of religion is founded on the fundamental tension between Weber’s and Durkheim’s approaches to religion. In this article, I want to use the tension between Weber and Durkheim to address fundamental problems in understanding religious modernity, both in the modern West and in contemporary Africa. Weber sought to explain differences in the social effects of the world religion...

In the conclusion of his article entitled “The Angelic Spirit in Early Judaism,” John R. Levison invited the scholarly community to use his work as “a suitable foundation for discussion of the angelic spirit” in early Christianity. A few years later, in his study of angelomorphic christology, Charles A. Gieschen highlighted the need for similar work in the field of early pneumatology. The case ...