The Duality of Human Existence: Isolation & Communion in Western Man

by David Bakan

Bakan is a great essayist in theological sociological issues. Here are 5 great articles on "isolation" and "communion" 1. Science, psychology, and religion; toward a psycho-theological view; projection of agency on the figure of satan; agency and communion in human sexuality, and unmitigated agency and freud's death instinct.

242 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book I've read this year, so far. I especially enjoyed the arguments made in chapter 2 "Protestantism, Science, and Agency". There Bakan offers some persuasive arguments showing how industrial forms of capitalism, Newtonian Physics, and the theory of evolution stem from Calvinism. Furthermore, he shows how the Calvinist notions of predestination, asceticism, and calling together form the fundamental basis for the type anxiety described by the Existentialists and various forms of emotional repression and alienation.