Richard Rohr’s Lineage

Letters to the editor

Richard Rohr’s Lineage

Richard Rohr, 2012

Volume 26  Issue 7, 8 & 9 | Posted: September 17, 2012

  Some people do not like the fact that I quote the Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung. I must admit that he’s had a major influence on my entire life. I first read him when I was very young, and again and again he would offer phrases that I knew were true. When I first read his work, I didn’t have the education to academically know that. I just knew intuitively that “He is right.” Carl Gustav Jung was a great thinker, and he wanted to bring externalized religion back to its internal foundations. He brought together amazing theology (his father was a Protestant minister) with very good psychology and he is surely not an “enemy” of religion at all. When asked if he “believed” in God, he said, with wonderful simplicity, “I do not believe, I know.”

  Some people do not like the fact that I quote the Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung. I must admit that he’s had a major influence on my entire life. I first read him when I was very young, and again and again he would offer phrases that I knew were true. When I first read his work, I didn’t have the education to academically know that. I just knew intuitively that “He is right.” Carl Gustav Jung was a great thinker, and he wanted to bring externalized religion back to its internal foundations. He brought together amazing theology (his father was a Protestant minister) with very good psychology and he is surely not an “enemy” of religion at all. When asked if he “believed” in God, he said, with wonderful simplicity, “I do not believe, I know.”
   I’m not saying I agree with every word he’s ever said, but what I am saying is that “much of the teaching of C. G. Jung” is in my lineage. He gives us more than enough wisdom to trust him. After all, I am sure you do not agree with every word I say. I would be disappointed in you if you did.

   

Richard Rohr, 2012