Chapter 1.

1. What does Fromm mean by "soul"? [6]

2. How does Fromm characterize Freud's main discovery? [6]

3. In what sense is a psychoanalyst a "physician of the soul"? [7]

4. What is the most important spiritual question for Fromm [9]
 

Chapter 2.

1.  In Fromm's recap of Freud's analysis of religion, what is the relationship between external authority and individual growth? [12-14]

2. According to Fromm, what is the weakness in Jung's definition of religion? [16-18]

3.   In what sense can Freud be seen as just as much of "friend of religion" as Jung? [18-20]
 

Chapter 3.

1.  How does Fromm define religion?  What aspects of human existence does religion arise from and respond to? [21-25]

2.  Why does Fromm call neurosis "a private form of religion." [27]  What evidence is there of primitive forms of religion such as ancestor worship, totemism, fetishism, ritualism, etc. in modern people's attitudes.  [29-34

3.  What are the two major kinds of religion according to Fromm?

4.  What are the central characteristics of authoritarian religion?

5.  Why does one worship this deity?

6.  What is the most important virtue?   Why?

7.  What's the worst sin?

8.  What does this view of religion imply about human nature?

9.  What does one gain and lose by accepting this god?

10.  What examples does Fromm give of authoritarian religion?

11.  What is humanistic religion?

12. What is the central virtue it encourages? What is the worst sin?

13.  How does humanistic religion define God?

14.  What examples does Fromm offer of humanistic religion?

15.  What's the point of the story about how Buddha saved the animal kingdom.

16.  How does Fromm interpret the Adam and Eve story?

17.  How does the relationship between human beings and God change in the flood story and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah?

18.  How would Freud respond to the story of Rabbi Eliezer?

19.  How are projection and alienation connected in Fromm's analysis of the idea of God in authoritarian religion?

20.  Why does Fromm use the psychological phenomenon of masochism to explain certain characteristics of authoritarian religion?

21.  What does Fromm imply about the significance of rationalization and herd instinct for understanding religion?

22.  What does Fromm think psychoanalysis has contributed to the understanding of religion?

23.  What is the difference between reason and rationalization? [58-60]  What are the sources of rationalization?

24. What kinds of things will a psychoanalyst ask about a person's religious ideas? [63-64]
 

Chapter 4:

1.  What are the core teachings that Fromm believes are part of the thinking of the founders of most of the world's religions? [76]  How do these teachings relate to the goals of psychoanalytic treatment? [77-79]

2.  How does Fromm expand the meaning of the Oedipus complex and the psychological meaning of incest? [79-81]

3.  How are nationalism, racism, ethnocentrism, etc. related to an incestuous orientation? [81-82]

4.  How does Fromm interpret the myth of the garden of Eden?  [84]

5.  What is the importance of the experience of homelessness and exile in the Bible, according to Fromm? [84]

6.  What problems develop as religions become organized institutions? [85]

7.  How does Fromm interpret the principle of "Love thy neighbor as thyself"? [86-87]

7.  How does Fromm interpret the meaning of religious concepts of love (love of fellow man,  love of God,  God's love for mankind) in relation to psychoanalysis. [86-87]

8.  What is the humanistic meaning of sin and guilt? [90-91]

9.  What are the three major characteristics of religious experience? [94-97]

10. What is the religious significance of the unconscious according to Fromm (97)

Chapter 5:

1.  What are legitimate and illegitimate functions of religion, for Fromm? [103-106]

2.  What are positive benefits of ritual?  [108-111]

3.  What is the meaning of the concept of God for Fromm? [113-119]

4. How does Fromm answer the question in the title of this chapter?

5. What does this statement mean: "the problem of religion is not the problem of God but the problem of man."

6. What is the danger of idolatry, and what forms does it take in the modern world, according to Fromm?