Embracing the Void
Rethinking the Origin of the Sacred

It’s the most often asked question, and the most seldom answered. It’s banal, yet profound. We engage in it without thinking. Perhaps it’s just as well. If we did think about it, it might break our brains. Let’s try it and see. Whenever I go out to the waiting room to get a client, I ask the question......more

I can't recommend this book highly enough. I have not read anything by Richard Boothby before but knew I would be in for a treat after recommendations by Todd McGowan and Peter Rollins. For anyone wanting to pursue the 'real' meaning of religious belief and the concept of God from a psychoanalytic p......more

"Language is a kind of spider’s web in which tugging at one side of the web produces vibrations across the whole lattice." "The relation of the human being to language might be said to be already an opening upon the sacred." "Love is God. Love is the very heartbeat of the divine, its living essence.......more

Indispensable. Although the thesis is brief and one-sided, just grounded almost exclusively on lacanian filosophy, the main insight is superb, stimulating and rich enough as to be grasped slow and carefully. It worths. It is very difficult to sketch an all-embracing outline about every religion in th......more

Religion had a negative response from both Freud and Marx. Boothby presents a radical reinterpretation here, relying much on the work of Jacques Lacan. One wonders how much of it is Lacan and how much it is Boothby reinterpreting Lacan, but the result is a fascinating read. It is never easy , but wo......more