Description: In Religious but Not Religious, Jungian analyst Jason E. Smith explores the idea, expressed by C.G. Jung, that the religious sense is a natural and vital function of the human psyche. We suffer from its lack.
Brief description: Jason E. Smith is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. He is a past president of the C. G. Jung Institute-Boston and currently serves as a training analyst and core faculty member in its analytic training program.
Review Quotes:
"Jason Smith brilliantly raises the reader's sophistication in navigating the varied, often contentious, landscape of contemporary religious understandings. He demonstrates that we are inherently religious creatures, and only a participation in 'the symbolic life' can lift a modern out of the slough of materialism to a felt experience of meaning. Smith's insights, nuanced explanations, and engagement of the heart are a gift for the reader."
-James Hollis, Ph.D., Jungian Analyst in Washington, D.C. and author, most recently, Living Between Worlds: Finding Personal Resilience in Changing Times.
"Religious but Not Religious is beautifully written and carries the reader into a reconsideration of the place of religion in modern life. An antidote to the reductionism and narcissism that plague modern culture, this book reminds us of the necessity of our connection to something larger and shows us why symbol and ritual, and the proper attitude towards both, are eternally necessary for human health.
-Gary S. Bobroff, MA, author of Carl Jung: Knowledge in a Nutshell