Panel: CONTEMPLATIVE RHYTHM AND THE RENEWAL OF CULTURE: THE ENGLISH DOMINICANS IN THE 20TH CENTURY



1265.3 - 'WHO CAN HEAL THE MODERN SOUL - THE CLERGY OR THE PSYCHOLOGISTS?': LESSONS FROM THE JUNG-WHITE ENCOUNTER FOR CONTEMPORARY PASTORAL PRACTICE.

AUTHORS:
Tyler P. (St Mary's University ~ London ~ United Kingdom)
Text:
This paper explores this year's EuAre theme of 'religious transformation in contemporary society' by examining the twentieth century encounter between two eminent practitioners of psychology and theology: the Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875 - 1961) and Victor White O.P. (1902-1960), an English Dominican priest. The paper will also address the specific aspects of the English Dominican sub-panel by showing how the English Dominicans' twentieth century encounter with contemporary culture can offer a model for contemporary engagement with religion and transformation in pastoral practice. To this end it begins by delineating how both Jung and White agreed that a twentieth century 'failure of religion' needed to be addressed by engagement with the emerging psychological practices. Unfortunately, their encounter led to misunderstandings and misrepresentations on both sides which have often cast the meeting as a 'failure of dialogue'. In contrast, this paper will present a 'third position' between that of White and Jung, using the work of their Viennese contemporary, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951) to propose an answer to the question posed by the paper's title: 'Who can heal the modern soul, the clergy or the psychologists?'