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Viktor Frankl and (Certain Aspects of) Jewish Spirituality
Although Frankl’s relation to Judaism has been investigated by biographers and interpreters of his thought, relatively little attention has been drawn to affinities between his thought and certain concepts associated with Hasidism and, behind that, Kabbalah. While affinities are not evidence of influence, a comparison of some of Frankl’s central ideas and the theological anthropology of Chabad (the “rationalist” school of Hasidism) uncovers common notions that can help break down some of the divisions separating esoteric spirituality (as it’s generally understood) from the healing sciences (with their own boundaries). As a case study we will examine the work of Abraham J. Twerski (1930-2021), rabbi and psychiatrist, whose work synthesized Hasidic spirituality and substance-abuse recovery therapies. For Twerski as for Frankl, the discovery of an individual’s purpose is a therapeutic process.
Ralph Keen, professor of history and religious studies at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), was trained in classics and philosophy before receiving the PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School. A historian of early-modern theology, his current research focuses on the continuity between late-medieval Catholic Scholasticism and the teachings of the early Reformers, who claimed to have moved beyond those methods and doctrines. From 2015 to August of this year, Keen was dean of the UIC Honors College. Keen has been president of the American Society of Church History and is currently the president of the American Catholic Historical Association, as well as editor of the monograph series Catholic Christendom 1300-1700, published in Leiden by Brill.