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.
The symbolic forms of religion mediate unconscious and ineffable experiences to the field of consciousness that infuse our lives with meaning and purpose. That is why we cannot be indifferent toward the decline of traditional religious observance so widely discussed today. The great religions house the accumulated spiritual wisdom of humankind, and their loss would be catastrophic to the human soul.
As human beings, we hunger for spiritual experience. To be “spiritual but not religious” is one possible response, but it often doesn’t go far enough. All too easily it can become a kind of do-it-yourself spirituality, which lacks the capacity to effect the kind of growth and transformation that is the true goal of all the religious traditions.
Smith argues that we need to be “religious but not religious.” We need an approach to religion that recognizes the essential importance of the individual spiritual adventure while also affirming the value of collective religious tradition. He articulates an understanding of religion as a participation in the symbolic life as opposed to a mere content of belief. By recovering our personal sensitivity for symbolic experience together with a symbolic understanding of religion, we facilitate a profound encounter with life and with the human condition through which one may be tested, tried, and transformed.
“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
“Jason Smith’s book Religious but Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life is a concise and thoughtful exploration of the question of religion, its value, and meaning. Smith explores religion from two perspectives, as an organizing container provided by collective traditions and as an individual quest for meaning necessitating attention to the unconscious. He shows that belonging can be very important for one’s psychological health, but it must be accompanied by a sustained uncovering of the religious dimensions of life. Remaining unconscious can produce a state of god-like inflation. Throughout the book Smith examines the dangers of scientific rationalism that, as a rule, result in a naïve relationship with religion, religious symbols, and religious institutions. Wonder and the emptying of one’s mind to the experience of the transcendent (kenosis) are the essential attitudes for pursuing the symbolic life.”
-Vladislav Šolc, co-author of Dark Religion: Fundamentalism from the Perspective of Jungian Psychology (with George Didier)
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Decisive Question
Psychology and Religion
The Religious Approach to Psyche
A Relationship to the Religious Dimension
Religious but Not Religious
PART 1: What Is the Symbolic Life?
Chapter 1 Symbols and the Symbolic
The Nature of the Psyche
Directed Thinking and Symbolic Thinking
The Perception of Experience
The Objective and the Subjective Responses
Symbols versus Signs
Mastery versus Meaning
Individual Symbols
Collective Symbols
A Function of Relationship
Chapter 2 Ritual: The Embodied Symbolic
Deepest Values
The Consolidation of Consciousness
Healing and the Holy
Tending the Ancestral Spirits
Participation in the Divine Drama
Structure and Communitas
Chapter 3 Religion: The Lived Symbolic
The Irrational Facts of Experience
The Numinosum
Religion versus Creed
Religiosity, Religiology, and Religionism
The Awakening of Faith
PART 2: Why Do We Need a Symbolic Life?
Chapter 4 The State of Religion
The Rise of the “Nones”
The Four Functions of Religion
The Psychological Function of Religion
The Sociological Function of Religion
The Cosmological Function of Religion
The Mystical Function of Religion
Chapter 5 Loss of Symbols
Creative Autonomy of the Unconscious
Containers for the Numinosum
A Personal Illustration
The Reality of the Symbol
People without Stories
Treatment for the Human Soul
Chapter 6 Religion and Psyche
The Human Machine
Reasons for Living
The Protective Effect of Religion
Therapy for the Disorders of the Soul
The Question of Meaning
The Chosen God
Chapter 7 The Role of Religion
Endurance of Suffering
A Widening of Vision
The Subversion of Values
A Source of Life
PART 3: How to Cultivate a Symbolic Life
Chapter 8 What Jung Teaches
Qualities of Experience
vi Religious but Not Religious
Religion
Dreams
Active Imagination
Chapter 9 What Religion Teaches
Institution as Symbol
The Relationship of the Individual to the Institution
The Elements of Institutional Religions
A Symbolic Field
Chapter 10 Experiential Consciousness
Ways of Knowing
Experiential Consciousness
Active versus Passive Consciousness
Postcritical Consciousness and the Ironic Imagination
Chapter 11 Psychology as Religio
Religio: Careful Observation of the Numinous
Religious Attitude versus Religious Belief
The God-Experience
A Consecration of Oneself
What We Serve
Conclusion: Opening a Space for Wonder
The Activity of Religious Consciousness
The Empty Center
Emptiness and Kenosis
Notes
References
Acknowledgments
About the Author
