{"product_id":"religion-as-metaphor-9781412856102","title":"Religion as Metaphor","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eBiblical stories are metaphorical. They may have been accepted as factual hundreds of years ago, but today they cannot be taken literally. Some students in religious schools even recoil from the fairy tales of religion, believing them to be mockeries of their intelligence. David Tacey argues that biblical language should not be read as history, and it was never intended as literal description. At best it is metaphorical, but he does not deny these stories have spiritual meaning.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReligion as Metaphor \u003c\/em\u003eargues that despite what tradition tells us, if we believe religious language, we miss religion''s spiritual meaning. Tacey argues that religious language was not designed to be historical reporting, but rather to resonate in the soul and direct us toward transcendent realities. Its impact was intended to be closer to poetry than theology. The book uses specific examples to make its case: Jesus, the Virgin Birth, the Kingdom of God, the Apocalypse, Satan, and the Resurrect\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In an environment where a mindless biblical fundamentalism has been identified with Christianity and where, as a direct result, the culture has become both non-believing and thoroughly secular, David Tacey, a proponent of a modern understanding of Christianity does his work. Rejecting both the hysteria of the biblical literalists and the emptiness of modern secularism, this book dares to engage both a deeply held Christian faith and the thought forms of the 21st century. As a Christian I welcome his contribution to the debate of our generation.\" --John Shelby Spong VIII, Bishop of Newark and author of The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic \"Professor David Tacey's book is of vital concern for those who are confronted with the challenges facing religion and especially Christianity in the Western world.\" -- Catholica website \"[T]his book is an eloquent, impassioned, and erudite plea for the renewal of Christianity that draws on extremely diverse sources, including G. W. F. Hegel, F. W. J. Schelling, Ludwig Feuerbach, David Strauss, Friederich Nietzsche, Matthew Arnold, Northrop Frye, Rudolph Bultmann, Paul Tillich, Harvey Cox, Karen Armstrong, and Dominic Crossan, among others.\" - Daniel Burston, PsycCRITIQUES\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePreface\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAcknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePersonal Introduction\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1. Miracles as Imagination\u003cbr\u003e Mythos and History; The Miracles of Jesus;\u003cbr\u003e Metaphor and Its Hazards; Preserving the\u003cbr\u003e Spiritual Meaning\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e2. Religion as Metaphor\u003cbr\u003e The Literary Mode of Scripture; Myth,\u003cbr\u003e Metaphor and Jesus; Literal Thinking as Idolatry;\u003cbr\u003e Religion as Unconscious Poetry; Pious Fraud;\u003cbr\u003e The Greatest Story Ever Sold?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e3. The Soul's Symbolic Code\u003cbr\u003e Why Myth Matters; Myth as Ancient\u003cbr\u003e Psychology; When Mythos became Logos;\u003cbr\u003e The Ancestral Mind; Mythos, Soul, Eternity;\u003cbr\u003e Mythos in Art and Entertainment; Mythos as a Structure of Thought; Mythos Downgraded; Myths, Dreams, Religions; Something Continues to Speak\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e4. Jesus the Metaphor\u003cbr\u003e Imagination and Reality; Fear of Myth;\u003cbr\u003e The Secret Life of Us; Personifying; Spirit\u003cbr\u003e Personified in Jesus; Ongoing Incarnation;\u003cbr\u003e The Messenger as the Message; An Eastern Moment in the West; Gnosticism and other Heresies;\u003cbr\u003e Absolutism, Violence, and Conflict; When Jesus became God; Onward Christian Soldiers;\u003cbr\u003e Jesus the Mirror of Our Projections\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e5. The Myth of the Virgin Birth\u003cbr\u003e The Dead Hand of Patriarchy; Can We Be\u003cbr\u003e \"Moved\" By Myths?; Sexual Politics and the\u003cbr\u003e Uses of Myth; The Myth and its Background;\u003cbr\u003e Divine Insemination; Spiritual Rebirth;\u003cbr\u003e Institutional Literalism; The Less We Believe the Better\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e6. Waking Up\u003cbr\u003e The Kingdom; Putting on the New Self;\u003cbr\u003e Waking Up to a Higher Authority; Reversal of\u003cbr\u003e the Ego's Values; Losing and Finding Life;\u003cbr\u003e The Mustard Seed; Many are Called, Few Choose;\u003cbr\u003e Completion, Not Perfection; Transformation,\u003cbr\u003e Not Repentance; Jesus, Socrates, and Waking Up\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e7. Apocalypse\u003cbr\u003e Apocalypse as Psychology; Coming of the New Self;\u003cbr\u003e Destruction and Renewal; Spiritual Event and\u003cbr\u003e Pathological Obsession; Violation of the Ego's\u003cbr\u003e Boundaries; New Self as Original Self; Judgment;\u003cbr\u003e Destruction and Punishment; God as Interruption;\u003cbr\u003e Rapture; Founding a New Order\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e8. Satan and Literalism\u003cbr\u003e Nicodemus and the Rebirth Story; Incest Fantasies\u003cbr\u003e and Sexual Abuse; Satan as the Personification of\u003cbr\u003e Literalism; The Sublimation of Base Instincts\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e9. Resurrection: Ascending to Where?\u003cbr\u003e The Resurrection Conundrum; Joseph Campbell's\u003cbr\u003e Straight Talking; Jung: Cutting through Spiritual\u003cbr\u003e Materialism; Paul's Mysticism; The Parable of Emmaus;\u003cbr\u003e Emmaus Never Happened, Emmaus Always Happens;\u003cbr\u003e The Unacknowledged God in Our Midst\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e10. Psyche and Symbol\u003cbr\u003e Dreaming the Myth Onward; Reworking\u003cbr\u003e the Past; The Therapeutic Function of Myth;\u003cbr\u003e Myth as Psychic Truth; Mystery Without Literalism;\u003cbr\u003e Respect to a God Unknown; The Assumption\u003cbr\u003e of Mary; Elevation of the Symbolic\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e11. After Belief\u003cbr\u003e After Literalism; Faith Without Belief;\u003cbr\u003e Vision and Uncommon Sense; Bultmann's\u003cbr\u003e Progressive Thinking; Saving the Myths;\u003cbr\u003e Throwing Out the Baby; Progressives in the\u003cbr\u003e Rationalistic Mode; The Sea of Faith at Ebb Tide;\u003cbr\u003e From Passive Belief to Active Faith;\u003cbr\u003e Stages of Faith; Recreating the Fables\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eConclusion: Unveiling the Soul\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRebirth of the Sacred; From the God-Shaped Hole; Depth Psychology as Midwife; Psyche as an Opening to Infinity\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Taylor \u0026 Francis Inc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51019813486935,"sku":"9781412856102","price":999.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781412856102.jpg?v=1750781341","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/religion-as-metaphor-9781412856102","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}