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PSYCHOLOGY AND THE CARE OF SOULS
the Christian Gospel. It is therefore of the utmost importance
to hold clearly in mind the relationship between psychology and
the care of souls. Perhaps no writer has succeeded better than
the German psychologist, Werner Gruehn,! in making this
distinction clear by asking and answering the fundamental
question: ‘What has psychology to do with the care of souls?’
In his essay on this subject he points out that time after time
one hears people expressing the view that the care of souls is a
sphere of action that should be entirely independent of
psychology. It has but one purpose: its single great mission is to
proclaim redemption, justification and eternal life through
Jesus Christ. It is concerned only with problems that are
relevant to the life of faith. It deals with an entirely unique and
supernatural realm of experience. The highest powers, the
greatest aims and the richest means for the care of souls all lie
beyond the farthest reaches of psychological aspirations and
methods.
All this is true; nevertheless, says Gruehn, it is not the whole
truth. The care of souls has another aspect that must not be
forgotten or neglected.
There is an intimate and necessary connection between the
spiritual and the psychological care of souls. However explicitly
we affirm the supernatural character of the task of caring for
souls—and we do so because we affirm the supernatural reality
of the being of man—we must yet insist that this reality can
manifest itself and be apprehended only within that realm of
life which is accessible to psychological as well as theological
influence. The mind and body are the instruments through
which the soul manifests itself in Time. Therefore the care of
souls cannot be practised in the deepest sense if either the
spiritual or the psychological aspect of man’s nature is
emphasised or cultivated at the expense of the other. We can speak of
the care of souls in its fullest sense only when the two aspects
are held together and treated together by a practical working
method which builds on the twin foundation of the mental or
inner-worldly and the spiritual or other-worldly life of man.
1 Seelsorge im Licht gegenwärtiger Psychologie (Arz und Scelsorger No. 7, 1926).
31
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