Jung on ignatius of loyola's spiritual exercises : lectures delivered at ETH Zurich, volume 7: 1939-1940 / C. G. Jung, Martin Liebscher.

"Between 1933 and 1941, C.G. Jung lectured at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (ETH). The ETH lectures are at the center of Jung's intellectual activity in the 1930s and provide a primary source for the understanding of his late work in the 1940s and 1950s. Thus they form a critical part of Jung's oeuvre which has yet to be accorded the attention and study they deserve. These lectures were open, and their audience consisted of ETH students, the general public (there were hundreds of auditors at every session), and Jung's followers. Mindful of the presence of so many laypeople in the auditorium, Jung took care to render his language and presentation as accessible as possible. Following on from the previous lecture series on Eastern meditation (Volume 6), Jung introduced the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola as the prime example of a Christian practice comparable to Eastern yoga practices. The lectures commence with a reconstruction of the historical context of the Spiritual Exercises, looking closely at the spiritual movement of the Devotio Moderna and the writings of Garc�ia Jim�enes de Cisneros, the teacher of Ignatius. Jung displays a particular interest in the life of Ignatius and dedicates parts of his lectures to a psychological interpretation of the Saint's visions as depicted in his autobiographical Reminiscences. The psychological reading of the Spiritual Exercises itself revolves mainly around the preparatory prayer of the Anima Christi and the first two weeks of the Spiritual exercises. The engagement with this founding text of the Jesuit orders was also important to Jung on a personal level, as traces of his ambivalent relationship to the Jesuit order and Roman Catholicism formed part of his earliest childhood memories. The negative and fearful image associated with these memories would only slowly loosen its grip on Jung and finally come to a resolve in the middle stages of his life. The lecture series was at the heart of Jung's increasing positive engagement with Roman Catholicism, a development that would after the war lead to the personal contacts and discussions with eminent Catholic theologians such as Victor White, P�ere Bruno de J�esus-Marie, and Hugo Rahner. Within Jung's work, this thorough examination of the Ignatian exercises is one of its kind, and came as a surprise to his students and followers. Due to this singular status, these lectures on Ignatian mediation - known only in the form of an abridged summary -- have held a certain fascination for Jungians. Here, for the first time, a broader public has access to the entire text of the lecture series, provided with the familiar high scholarly standard of the Philemon edition series"-- Provided by publisher.