Ellen M. Umansky. From Christian Science to Jewish Science: Spiritual Healing and American Jews. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. xii, 245 pp.
By the end of the nineteenth century, the pressures of modern civilization had become so exigent that alienists were decrying the prevalence of “neurasthenia,” and William James would soon diagnose the “sick souls” whose anguished quest for relief from existential despair marked not only an enduring...
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| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
University of Pennsylvania Press
2006
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| In: |
AJS review
Year: 2006, Volume: 30, Issue: 1, Pages: 216-218 |
| Further subjects: | B
Book review
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | By the end of the nineteenth century, the pressures of modern civilization had become so exigent that alienists were decrying the prevalence of “neurasthenia,” and William James would soon diagnose the “sick souls” whose anguished quest for relief from existential despair marked not only an enduring religious archetype but also the widening incompatibility between the demands of industrial and urban society and the needs of the psyche. One proposed remedy was Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1875), whose author claimed divine revelation for herself. By 1911, Mary Baker Eddy's movement had attracted so many Jews that the B'nai B'rith had to prohibit its members from subscribing to Christian Science, which Isaac Mayer Wise felt compelled to denounce as “pure quackery” that risked becoming “an epidemic delusion” (27). Another Reform rabbi, Max Heller, blasted Jews for joining a sect that was marred by the “unintelligible twaddle which [their] female savior has managed to spin around the simplest utterances” (28). |
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| ISSN: | 1475-4541 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Association for Jewish Studies, AJS review
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0364009406340093 |