At Home in the World: A Study in Psychoanalysis, Religion, and Art

Synopsis: The emotional separation of boys from their mothers in early childhood enables them to connect with their fathers and their fathers' world. But this separation also produces a melancholic reaction of sadness and sense of loss. Certain religious sensibilities develop out of this melancholic reaction, including a sense of honor, a sense of hope, and a sense of humor. Realizing that they cannot return to their original maternal environment, men, whether knowingly or not, embark on a lifelong search for a sense of being at home in the world. At Home in the World focuses on works of art as a means to explore the formation and continuing expression of men's melancholy selves and their religious sensibilities. These explorations include such topics as male viewers' mixed feelings toward the maternal figure, physical settings that offer alternatives to the maternal environment, and the maternal resonances of the world of nature. By presenting images of the natural world as the locus of peace and contentment, At Home in the World especially reflects of the religious sensibility of hope. Endorsement: "Blending art, historical, and gender sensibilities with psycho-biographic explorations, Capps invites his readers to be attentive to the subtle display of male loss and longings in iconic works of art. The joy of discovery is in no small manner a result of his eloquent writing style, which proceeds at a contemplative pace while imbued with the sharpness of psychoanalytic insight." --Bjorn Krondorfer, Endowed Professor of Religious Studies, Northern Arizona University "Bringing to bear his years of exploring the inner life and development of boys and men, Capps seeks to raise the reader's consciousness of one's melancholic self, how it quietly shapes religious sensibility, vocation, and cultural expression, and how one's resourceful self can constructively deal with a long-forgotten loss." --Ryan LaMothe, Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling, St. Meinrad School of Theology "Capps, the homemaker, advocates genuine and hopeful action, homemaking, by means of searching for asymmetrical meanings of the melancholic self, in which joy, woe, humor, and terror are woven fine. While reading this aesthetic book, you will certainly feel 'at-homeness' in the uncanniness. I strongly commend it." --Sang Uk Lee, Associate Professor, Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary "With nimble reflections that draw on wide-ranging contributions from psychology, religion, and art, Capps helps men, and those who live and work with them, understand their longing to be 'at home in the world, ' and he encourages them to cultivate and embrace that longing with greater courage and even joy. A stunning work " --Allan Hugh Cole Jr., Academic Dean and Professor of Pastoral Care, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary "With in-depth knowledge, harmonizing originality, and uncanny clarity, Capps explores the shadows of life and the origins of male religious sensibility. Psychologists of religion, personality or psychoanalytic theorists, and art historians and cultural critics will find Capps a thought-provoking conversation partner. Reading At Home in the World is a personal event, an invitation to find hope." --Jaco J. Hamman, Associate Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture, Vanderbilt University Author Biography: Donald Capps is William Harte Felmeth Professor of Pastoral Theology Emeritus and Adjunct Professor at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the author of Striking Out: The Religious Journey of Teenage Boys (Cascade Books, 2011) and Understanding Psychosis (2010), and is coauthor with Nathan Carlin of Living in Limbo: Life in the Midst of Uncertainty (Cascade Books, 2010).