On Theology and Psychology: The Correspondence of C. G. Jung and Adolf Keller

337 Pages·2020·4.875 MB·English

by  C. G. Jung, Adolf Keller

On Theology and Psy chol ogy
Adolf Keller. Courtesy of Pierre Keller.
A list of Jung’s works appears at the back of this volume.
On Theology and Psy chol ogy
A Correspondence
C. G. Jung and Adolf Keller
Edited by
Marianne Jehle-W ildberger
Translated by Heather McCartney with John Peck
Published with the support of the Philemon Foundation
This book is part of the Philemon Series of the Philemon Foundation
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Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Names: Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), 1875–1961, author. | Keller, Adolf, 1872–1963
Correspondence. Se lections. En glish. | Jehle-W ildberger, Marianne, editor.
Title: On theology and psy chol ogy : a correspondence / C.G. Jung and
Adolf Keller ; edited by Marianne Jehle-W ildberger ; translated by Heather
McCartney with John Peck.
Description: Princet on, New Jersey : Princet on University Press, [2020] | Series:
Philemon series | Originally published in German as: C. G. Jung und Adolf Keller :
über Theologie und Psychologie : Briefe und Gespräche. | Includes
bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2019047544 (print) |
LCCN 2019047545 (ebook) | ISBN 9780691198774 (hardcover ; alk. paper) |
ISBN 9780691201504 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), 1875–1961— Correspondence. |
Keller, Adolf, 1872–1963—C orrespondence. | Psychoanalysis and religion. |
Chris tiani ty— Psy chol ogy. | Psy chol ogy, Religious.
Classification: LCC BF109.J8 A413 2020 (print) | LCC BF109.J8 (ebook) |
DDC 150.19/54092— dc23
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2019047544
LC ebook rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2019047545
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Foreword vii
Register of Persons xi
Abbreviations xix
PART I. FROM BEGINNINGS TO 1943
One. Adolf Keller’s and C. G. Jung’s Development up to 1909 3
a. Adolf Keller (1872–1963) 3
b. C. G. Jung (1875–1961) 8
Two. Common Paths: Analytical Psyc hol ogy and Christian
Pastoral Ministry 16
a. Jung’s Split from Freud and Keller’s Siding with Jung 16
b. Mutual Interests: The Psychoanalytical Society (1913–1914) 22
c. Consensus and Dissent: The Association for Analytical
Psy chol ogy (1914–1918) 30
d. An Import ant Letter by Jung on Therapy 36
e. Keller as Pastoral Psychologist 37
f. Keller’s Propaganda for Analytical Psyc hol ogy and Pragmatism 41
g. Difficult Beginnings of the Psychological Club 46
h. The Individuation of Jesus: Keller’s Lecture on the Gospel and
Chris tian ity 51
i. Tina Keller- Jenny, Early Analysand of C. G. Jung 54
j. Jung and Keller in Zu rich Together in Zu rich: An Overview 64
Three. The Paths Diverge 66
a. Keller’s Ecumenical and Humanitarian Engagement 66
b. Keller’s Turn toward Karl Barth’s Dialectical Theology 68
c. Jung’s and Keller’s Analy sis of National Socialism 72
vi • Contents
d. Jung’s and Keller’s Writing on Psyc hol ogy and Religion 76
e. The Situation at the Start of the Correspondence in
Their Later Years 81
PART II. THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN
JUNG AND KELLER
On the Letters 91
The Letters 117
Appendix. Adolf Keller: Analytical Psy chol ogy and
Religious Research 247
Lit er a ture 283
Acknowl edgments 293
Index 295
Foreword
The relationship between the theologian Adolf Keller (1872–1963) and
the psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) spanned a good fifty years.
It began at the end of 1907 and continued until April 1958, when Jung
wrote a final letter to Keller, who had just suffered a stroke. Parallels exist
in Jung and Keller’s fields of interest, despite differences in emphases. Both
experienced periods of affinity as well as of distance. Though they shared
many of their convictions, they differed on o thers, while sharing a mu-
tual re spect for one another. In each of their respective fields they w ere
pioneers: Jung as a psychiatrist, Keller as an ecumenist.
They shared a lifelong engagement with questions of religion in which
each man grappled with God in his own part icu l ar way. (Karl Barth played
his part in the background to this debate.) In Jung’s view religion was very
significant for nearly all his patients, at least for those over the age of
thirty- five. His dialogue about God with Keller the theologian is one of
the first of its kind and is therefore of the greatest con temporary interest.
Even today, not only theologians are confronted by religious questions,
but also psychiatrists and psychologists, and conversely theologians must
also grapple with psychic probl ems. For both Jung and Keller, what was
import ant was lived experience—h ere in this mortal world. The h uman
being, body, soul, and spirit— the wholeness of man— were central, but
fin ally what counted was the well-b eing of humanity as a w hole. For Keller,
ethics w ere a central, lifelong concern and a major component of his min-
istry. Although less overtly, this was also true of Jung, who once wrote
that it was his task to account for the conceptions of God “which decide
our ethical beh av ior and have such an impor tant influence on our practi-
cal life.”1
Jung was a theoretical researcher, whose work was rooted in his prac-
tical experience as a psychiatrist; Keller was a practical, active minister
1 Jung, Answer to Job, in C. G. Jung, Psy chol ogy and Religion: West and East, CW 11,
paras. 553–758, Routledge 1970, para. 738. (R. F. C. Hull’s translation).
viii • Foreword
with a keen interest in scholarly theology. Both w ere honorary professors,
Keller at the University of Zu rich and Jung at the ETH (Federal Poly-
technic University in Zu rich). Jung left behind a massive collection of
written work, as did Keller. One might call them latter- day examples of
the all-r ound polymath. Their interests w ere wide-r anging and extended
far beyond their professional disciplines. They were both well-v ersed in
the Koran; Keller even read it in classical Arabic. They both required pe-
riods of retreat and solitude, but were at the same time communicative
and well-m atched in their engagement with the world and their openness.
“Through my acquaintance with many Americans, and my trips to and
inside Amer i ca, I have obtained an enormous amount of insight into the
Eu ro pean character.”2 Although this is Jung, Keller might just as well
have written it. They shared a love of all things En glish.3 Both were ac-
tive men, had huge reserves of creative energy, and distinguished them-
selves through their exceptional creativity. Without doubt these two old
friends are among the great Swiss men of the twentieth century. Active
throughout Eu rope, they also enjoyed much public recognition on the
other side of the Atlantic.
Liber Novus, The Red Book, which was recently published for the first
time, is the text to which Jung devoted himself from 1914 to 1930,4 fol-
lowing his separation from Freud. This substantial volume caused a sen-
sation, and contains, as Jung himself said, “the nucleus of his l ater works.”5
Jung’s publications are currently being reissued, and new explorations
of his life and work are constantly appearing. “Jung is a major figure in
modern Western thought. . . . He played critical roles in the formation of
modern psy chol ogy.”6 Keller’s books, on the other hand, are gathering dust
on library shelves, despite the fact that much that he inaugurated survives
and continues to serve as role models. These include Keller’s mediation
between the American and Eur o pean churches a fter the First World War,
his worldwide social and humanitarian engagement, which in part lives
on in the World Council of Churches in Geneva, and his ecumenical edu-
cation work that is carried on at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute. The
Swiss Church Aid organ ization HEKS can indirectly be traced back to
him, and the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches descends directly
2 Jung, Memories. Dreams and Reflections, p. 275.
3 Both spoke En glish and French fluently.
4 C. G. Jung, The Red Book. Liber Novus. Norton, New York, 2009.
5 Ibid., “Introduction” (Sonu Shamdasani), p. 193.
6 Ibid. p.193.
Foreword • ix
from Keller, whose driving force he was for many years. His efforts for
Jewish refugees in the Nazi period are unrivalled.
At the heart of this book is Keller’s dialogue with C. G. Jung and with
analytical psyc hol ogy. Jung, for his part, had a keen life-l ong interest in
religion and, if less developed, in theology. Indeed, he was personally ac-
quainted with several theologians, but t hese relationships w ere rather few
and far between before 1945, compared with his relationship with Keller
in any case.7 He was emphatically in f avor of collaboration between psy-
chologists and theologians in the therapy of psychically burdened p eople.
Keller, in turn, had been interested in psyc holo gy since his student days, and
early on pursued a dialogue with C. G. Jung as did no other theologian
of his generation. He and his student friend Oskar Pfister were pioneers
of so- called pastoral psy chol ogy, which aroused the interest of theolo-
gians more broadly only after the Second World War and, increasingly,
from around 1970.8
This introduction consists of two parts. After a brief overview of Jung
and Keller’s youth and their early professional lives, Part I covers their
acquaintance from 1907 u ntil 1943. Only a few letters survive from this
period, the earliest originating with Jung in 1915. However, t here are vari-
ous other documents related to the relationship and the collaboration of
the two protagonists, such as reco rds of conversations and lectures. Thus,
we hear Jung and Keller’s aut hen tic voices not only in the letters, but also
in Part I of this book. Part II consists of the correspondence (annotated
by the editor), which by and large commences in 1943, in the latter stages
of their relationship. Keller’s article on the occasion of Jung’s 60th birth-
day is appended.
7 Along with Oskar Pfister (1873–1956) a postive exception was Hans Wegmann
(1889–1973) with whom Jung exchanged several letters between 1937 and 1945, and
whom he once invited to a lecture. The renowned theology professor Paul Tillich, who de-
veloped a theory of religious symbols, was influenced by C. G. Jung’s concept of the “col-
lective unconscious.” See Werner Schüssler and Erdmann Sturm, Paul Tillich. Leben—
Werk— Wirkung, Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 2007, p. 47f.
8 Examples from the post-w ar period are the Protestant theologians Otto Haendler,
Walter Uhsadel, Eduard Thurneysen, Hans Schär, Paul Fredi de Quervain, and Walter Ber-
net, and, foremost, the Eng lish Dominican Father Victor White. Most recently this would
include Wolfgang Schildmann and Susanne Heine.