Farewell and New Beginning: The Psychosocial Effects of Religiously Traditional Rites of Passage - Paperback

by Kathrin Rothenberg-Elder (Author)

Life is full of transitions. These transitions have to be addressed, shaped, processed and integrated into our lives in some way. Regardless of the belief in a God, traditional structures always come into view, here especially religiously traditional rites of passage such as baptism and circumcision, communion and bar mitzvah, marriage as well as convalescence, death and funeral rites. What is the psychological function of religiously traditional rites of passage today? This question will be investigated with the help of interactive interviews with functionaries and members of the religious communities of all three monotheistic currents in Northern Europe, flanked by two interviews with atheists.

Back Jacket

Life is full of transitions. These transitions have to be approached, shaped, processed and integrated into our lives in some way. Regardless of the belief in a God, traditional structures always come into view, here especially religiously traditional rites of passage such as baptism and circumcision, communion or bar/bat mitzvah, marriage as well as convalescence, death and funeral rites. What is the psychological function of religiously traditional rites of passage today? This question will be investigated with the help of interactive interviews with functionaries and members of the religious communities of all three monotheistic currents in Northern Europe, flanked by two interviews with atheists.

The author

Kathrin Rothenberg-Elder, grew up in Niger, Algeria and Germany; studied psychology, practical theology and modern German literature, doctorate on Christian threshold rituals.

Professor of psychology at the diploma university (focus on social and environmental psychology), numerous exhibitions as a photographer in Germany and abroad (focus on interreligious dialogue) and publications as an author (focus on specialist literature and poetry).

This book is a translation of an original German edition. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation.

Author Biography

Kathrin Rothenberg-Elder, grew up in Niger, Algeria and Germany; studied psychology, practical theology and modern German literature, doctorate on Christian threshold rituals.

Professor of psychology at the diploma university (focus on social and environmental psychology), numerous exhibitions as a photographer at home and abroad (focus on interreligious dialogue) and publications as an author (focus on specialist literature and poetry).