Jung as psychologist of religion and Jung as philosopher of religion

Abstract: Is it possible to be both a psychologist and a philosopher? Is it possible for a psychologist, or more generally a social scientist, to use social scientific findings to make philosophical claims? Specifically, is it possible for a social scientist to use social scientific findings to determine the existence of God? Did Jung profess to be only a psychologist or also a philosopher? If he professed to be both, did he enlist his psychological findings to make philosophical claims? Specifically, did he enlist his psychological findings to determine the existence of God?     

Jung and Mr. Punch as mythologems

This paper explores how we can make our own mythological version of ‘Jung’ say whatever we want. Excessive veneration gets in the way of his theories being allowed to stand on their own. Understanding ‘Jung’ as a mythologem provides a way out of this intoxication with identification by letting us recollect and re‐connect to the Collective Unconscious.     

A visit paid to Jung by Alwine von Keller

In the winter of 1943-1944, Jung had suffered a coronary thrombosis which almost cost him his life. During his illness, Jung experienced a series of visions, described in his Memories, Dreams, Reflections, which were also to influence significantly the development of his theoretical thinking. On 27(th) September 1944, Alwine von Keller (1878-1965) paid a visit to Jung, while he was still convalescing, in Zurich and documented her meeting with him in a series of notes, recently discovered, which testify to the fact that, at the time of their meeting, Jung was engaged in writing the 'Salt' chapter of Mysterium coniunctionis and investigating the alchemistic symbolism of the 'sea'. This theme seems to testify to a continuity of interests on Jung's part with the seminar he held at Eranos the previous year on the cartographic art of Opicinus de Canistris (1296-c.1352). With its addition of many unpublished details, Alwine von Keller's notes supplement the report which Jung made of his visions experienced during his sickness in MDR. In particular, these attest to the fact that Jung had attributed the terrible experience which he had endured to the problem of the conjunctio, which was confronting him from the theoretical point of view in his writing of Mysterium coniunctionis.     

The Professor's Vocations: Reflections on the Teacher as Writer

Abstract. The following essay is based on an oral presentation, “On Being a Good Teacher and a Good Writer,” which the author was asked to make for the Southwest Commission on Religious Studies, March 16, 2003. The purpose of the presentation was to encourage conversation among theological educators on the character of their vocation. A panel discussion of the theme followed the presentation. The presentation was designed to engage this subject at an autobiographical and reflective level rather than as an academic argument. The published version of the essay seeks to retain something of the personal reflective character of the original presentation.