Mike,
Thanks for correcting my spelling in the PM. I am just up the road from you in Dallas. In reading your comments about the Phillips book, which I have not read, I was reminded of a section of Peter Gay's biography of Freud. He is describing the 15 year+ friendship between Freud and Oscar Pfister, A Lutheran pastor from Switzerland, who wrote to Freud originally after reading the Interpretation of Dreams. They spent much time together visiting one anothers families and discussed in very amicable terms their differing opinions about religion. According to Gay: "In Pfister's view, Jesus, who had elevated love into the central tenet of his teaching, was the first psychoanalyst, and Freud not a Jew at all. "A better Christian." he told Freud, "never was". Naturally Freud, who tactfully ignored this well-meaning compliment, could not think of himself as the best of Christians. But he was happy to see himself as the best of friends. "Ever the same!" he exclaimed to Pfister after they had known one another for more than fifteen years. "Courageous, honest and benevolent! Your character will doubtless not change any more in my eyes.""
Now that's the way to have a religious discussion. Myron |
