ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction to the book. It begins by setting out the seriousness of the subject matter, religious hatred, and the purposes of writing it. It then explains the format of the book and what the content does and does not cover, particularly its focus mainly on religion in Western contexts and on psychodynamic psychology. It also provides an outline of the author's experience and the biases that this may give the book. It concludes with some notes about language, its origins as a doctoral dissertation and how the academic language of the original has been adapted to make it more accessible.
