Jung and Pastoral Imagination

Team Members/Contributors

Katie Givens Kime Contact Me

About this pastoral study project

The emergence of mature pastoral imaginations in our church leaders is crucially important to the survival and flourishing of the church. Craig Dykstra points out that such development will include many things, but perhaps most critical is “a disciplined spiritual life through which one enters into the deeper levels of one’s own self, encounters one’s own deepest hopes and fears.” How might C.G. Jung’s spiritual journey (particularly as detailed in his recently uncovered Red Book) and his life’s work on the nature of the soul and the psyche equip pastors in developing mature pastoral imaginations? Might we find tools in this body of work, particularly when it is considered together with the archetypal literature of the Psalmist, the Prophets, Dante, and St. Teresa of Avila, which will facilitate radical contemplation and interior exploration for pastors? The aim of this grant is to provide time for sustained study of these questions, and in consultation with clergy colleagues and academic mentors, producing an interactive multimedia web presence offering some form of exploration of The Red Book, along with scholarly material to be of use to my clergy colleagues in pursuit of developing their own pastoral imaginations.