The ‘Scandal’ of the Lubavitch Rebbe: Messianism as a Response to Failed Prophecy

Dein, Simon; Dawson, Lorne L.

doi:10.1080/13537900802024550

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…My current research examines the response of Lubavitcher Hasidim to the death of their spiritual leader, Menachem Schneerson, the Rebbe. While I lived in Stamford Hill, the Lubavitch community became increasingly messianic and this culminated in the conviction that Schneerson, who died in 1994 at the age of 92, was, and for many still is, Moshiach -the Jewish Messiah (Dein, 1997(Dein, , 2001(Dein, , 2002bDein & Dawson, 2008). Following this failed prophecy, Lubavitchers continued missionizing at the same high level as previously, confirming Festinger's (1956) theory of cognitive dissonance.…”

Section: Deinsupporting

confidence: 53%

Drawing together psyche, soma and spirit: My career in cultural psychiatry

Dein

2011

Transcult Psychiatry

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this article I discuss my career in cultural psychiatry. I begin by examining the influence of my personal background on my interests in cultural psychiatry and religion and health. I then discuss my research, which has focused upon two areas: the cognitive and phenomenological parallels between religious experiences and psychopathological states, and relationships between biomedicine and religious healing in diverse cultural contexts. Finally, I discuss plans for future research and teaching.

show abstract

Section: Deinsupporting

confidence: 53%

Drawing together psyche, soma and spirit: My career in cultural psychiatry

Dein

2011

Transcult Psychiatry

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The classic analysis of failed prophecy in terms of dissonance theory (Festinger et al ) was employed, with various adaptations, to make sense of Habad in the aftermath of the Rabbi's death (Dein and Dawson ; Dein ; Shaffir , , ). For critical views of dissonance as adequate conception for understanding post‐Schneerson Habad see Dein (:139–146), Kravel‐Tovi (), and Kravel‐Tovi and Bilu ().…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“We Want to See Our King”: Apparitions in Messianic Habad

Bilu¹

2013

Ethos

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Reports of apparitions of the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the last leader of the Habad Hasidic movement, have been spreading among the radically messianic Hasidim (meshichistim) in Israel, who maintain that the Rabbi, the designated Messiah, has not died. Expanding on the cognitive model of source misattribution, I seek to account for the apparitions by unpacking the messianic ecology cultivated by the meshichistim to make the absent Rabbi present. Habad's dialectical mysticism and anguish over the Rabbi's disappearance are likely to provide the mindset and motivation for sightings, but it is the rich array of icons and traces of the Rabbi, and mimetic practices in which they are embedded, that constitute the perceptual field where he can be seen. This cultural décor is particularly evident for apparitions in ritual arenas, while apparitions in mundane settings are often triggered by acute distress. Comparing the apparitions to visions in Christianity, I account for the lingering ambivalence toward apparitions in messianic Habad by highlighting the epistemological constraints imposed on them by the denial of the Rabbi's death. [apparitions, Habad Hasidism, signal detection theory, messianic ecology, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneeerson]

show abstract

“…'s () seminal study of failed prophecy among a small apocalyptic UFO cult, this can result in firstly a rationalisation of why prophecy fails and secondly a reaffirmation , often through increased proselytising, of the original mission of the group. The rationalisation of the failed prophecy can sometimes involve what has been deemed a ‘spiritualisation’, where what was meant to happen actually did occur, but on an invisible, heavenly plane of existence (Dein and Dawson ).…”

Section: Understanding Prophecymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sealing future geographies: religious prophecy and the case of Joanna Southcott

Holloway

2014

Trans Inst British Geog

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper seeks to contribute to an emerging debate in human geography concerning the spatialities of the future, and aims to address a gap in work on the geography of religion regarding the temporalities of faith. Through a focus on religious prophecy, the paper seeks to examine how different spaces, temporalities, identities, practices and dispositions (both religious and secular-scientific) are generated through and generate this religious future. The paper argues that prophecy is a particular form of making the future, and advances the dual notions cosmicdivine time and preparatory assured readiness in order to understand and underline this specificity. Through the example of the prophetess Joanna Southcott (1750-1814) and an event involving a box of her prophecies publically opened in 1927, it argues that prophetic space-times presence the future through multiple and intersecting 'notyets', hesitancies and assurances.

show abstract

The ‘Scandal’ of the Lubavitch Rebbe: Messianism as a Response to Failed Prophecy

Cited by 9 publications

References 14 publications

Drawing together psyche, soma and spirit: My career in cultural psychiatry

Drawing together psyche, soma and spirit: My career in cultural psychiatry

“We Want to See Our King”: Apparitions in Messianic Habad

Sealing future geographies: religious prophecy and the case of Joanna Southcott

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About