Ultra-orthodox Jews in Jerusalem are isolated from the secular community that surrounds them not only physically but by their dress, behaviors, and beliefs. Their relationship with secular society is characterized by social, religious, and political tensions. The differences between the ultra-orthodox and secular often pose special difficulties for psychiatrists who attempt to deal with their needs. In this book, two Western-trained psychiatrists discuss their mental health work with this community over the past two decades. With humor and affection they elaborate on some of the factors that make it difficult to treat or even to diagnose the ultra-orthodox, present fascinating case studies, and relate their observations of this religious community to the management of mental health services for other fundamentalist, anti-secular groups.

Prologue. Insanity and religion -- Part I. Sanctified insanity: between history and psychology -- The paradox that inhabits ambiguity -- Meanings of insanity -- Part II. Abnormality and social change: early Christianity vs. rabbinic Judaism -- Abnormality and social change -- Socializing nature: the ascetic totem -- Epilogue. Psychology, religion, and social change

If there are two words that seem not to fit together they are "society" and "sanity." Spend twenty minutes on the freeway or ten minutes reading the newspaper, or ponder the religious and political conflicts in some regions of the world, and you will understand the point. Yet if people are to thrive--to live fully and together in peace-- we must have sanity when it comes to society. And that requires sanity when it comes to thinking about man. Sanity involves seeing things as they really are. Social sanity requires seeing man as he really is--to grasp who and what human beings are and what sort of social arrangements help or hinder human flourishing. In this classic work, Society and Sanity, Catholic thinker Frank Sheed brings his brilliant mind and lucid writing style to bear on the good human society. By explaining perennial truths about human nature based on the wisdom of Catholic social ethics, Sheed's book is as pertinent today with our controversies about love, the nature of marriage, the role of government, the relationship of law and morality and of Church and State, and the duties of the citizen, as when he penned the work over a half a century ago.

Vatican II issued an urgent call for the laity to take a more active role in the life of the Church. What should the life of the Christian believer be like? How are average lay Christians called to help save the world? How does theology fit into the picture? One of Frank Sheed's most popular books, this ideal volume for the layman shows the practical aspects of theology in the life of a Christian believer. Logic, clarity, and simplicity permeate this eminently readable book. Drawing from his fifty years of street-corner preaching, as well as his long career as an author, lecturer and publisher, Sheed understands and communicates better than anyone the importance of theology and its relationship to living sanely in today's world. A brilliant synthesis of the Catholic view of life.

Written for Christian men struggling with any form of sexual brokenness, this resource helps men understand that sexual sin starts in their minds and hearts and shows them how knowing Christ breaks their chains, builds spiritual brotherhood, and helps them take practical steps to re-create their minds in a God-focused direction. The ...

Sexual Sanity for Women Leader's Guide equips facilitators to walk with women through the process of understanding why they struggle with destructive relational and sexual patterns and how the gospel brings change and a new way of living.

In this ground-breaking study, Shelley Baranowski not only explores how and why church-going Protestants in eastern Prussia turned to Nazism in large numbers, but also shows that the rural elite and the church propagated a myth of the stability, the wholesomeness, and the class-harmony--in short, the "sanctity"--of rural life, a myth that was a key component of Nazi propaganda that helped secure support for the Third Reich in rural areas. Of great interest to historians and students of the period as well as anyone interested in how a fringe radical movement gained wide popular support.