Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul

Rating:
Summary: Extremely Interesting and Insightful!
Review: Ariel Glucklich's "Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul" is a fabulous look at religious pain. In an area with so few books already, a book like Glucklich's is a gem.

The author takes many approaches to the topic, ranging from anthropological, physiological, sociological and psychological to break down the use of pain (both self-inflicted and inflicted by others) into an insightful, understandable read. The book is filled with massive amounts of great content, as well as excellent citations from other good works and scholars, as well. The book is academic and scholarly, but hardly a dry read.

I purchased this book because of my academic interest in body modification and pain ritual, but used it massively in a 'Religion and Psychology' course. I still find myself removing it from the shelf every now and again to look something up.

Whether you ultimately agree with what the book presents, one will still find the book very interesting and thought-provoking.