Embracing the Void

Philosopher Richard Boothby works within the psychoanalytic tradition to propose a new account of religion, built on Jacques Lacan's concept of das Ding. For Lacan, das Ding is the unsettling, unreachable core of other people, first encountered in the figure of the mother, and it also underpins his view of how the unconscious operates. Boothby argues that the sacred emerges from our relationship to what we cannot know, and he uses this idea to rethink where religion comes from.

The book first surveys Sigmund Freud's efforts to develop a psychoanalytic theory of religion, then outlines the different route Lacan took. Boothby uses this groundwork to offer theoretical tools for interpreting the religious impulse, and he applies them to a wide range of traditions, including ancient Greek polytheism, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.

The final section turns to modern capitalist culture and asks how money has come to function as the god that holds sway over it. The book contributes to a psychoanalytic debate where opinions run strongly, and it offers a different framework for understanding religion.