The illness that we are; a Jungian critique of Christianity

Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint : p58-62.. Gnosticism and Psychology : see index.

1 Jung's ambivalence toward Christianity. 2 Sacrosanct unintelligibility. 3 A systematic blindness. 4 How the West was lost. --Jung's analysis of Western spiritual development. --From the church fathers to the Middle Ages. --Scholasticism, mysticism and the alchemical tradition. --Kant, Hegel and modern theology. 5 Theopathology and Christopathology. 6 The final option: mandalic versus holocaustic faith. 7 Of sheep and shepherds: pastoral psychology and the psychology of pastors. 8 The Gnostic Christian

'...But Jung was also highly critical of some aspects of the Christian tradition, particularly its emphasis on perfection, rather than wholeness, as the goal of maturation....Here is a thoughtful and comprehensive exploration of Jung's attitudes by [a] Catholic priest and Jungian analyst....With scholarly insight, it reveals both the strengths and weaknesses of the Christian myth, in terms of the psychological and religious search for meaning, and its potential significance for collective survival. Particular attention is given to the history of Western spiritual development and Jung's views that the Gnostic mystical and alchemical traditions contain the necessary compensation for the extraverted and essentially masculine ideals of Christianity.'

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