Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Part 3. The Psychology of Unbelief - 4. Doubt and Religious Development - Complex-grounded Doubts
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
DOUBT AND RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT
dis-integrity; and this mental situation gives rise to a gnawing
religious doubt.
Observe that this is not always the result of a conscious
change of religious attitude or even a conscious affective
disposition; nor of a general schizoid state. There is always a
definite cause, a core in the affective system. When it is
discovered and the evil is removed, liberation from the doubt
follows.
Events which in some people arouse doubts or denials of
religious value have upon others a more marked and critical
effect. The light of faith suddenly goes out. Almost unawares the
individual discovers that he has been plunged into spiritual
darkness, complete and very frightening. The soul longs for
illumination that it cannot find.
A young man spoke to his spiritual adviser about a
continually recurring and painful doubt that assailed him for a
long time after he had made a spiritual decision. A very simple
analysis revealed that the source of the doubt lay in an incorrect
personal attitude to one of his close relations. When this was
put right the doubt disappeared. The complex that bred it had
been removed.
Spranger is among those who think that no attempt should
be made directly to spare young people the experience of doubt. `
He recognises that their predicament is often pathetic but says
that only through such distress can the personality develop its
strength. Johannes Lindworsky! expresses the opinion that
when a period of doubt is passed through without the loss of
religious feeling a constructive development of religious insight
follows.
However we look at the problem of religious doubt we cannot
evade the fact that since religion must be a reality of personal
experience, personally acquired, the possibility of doubt arising
always remains. Faith and doubt are co-existent as the positive
and negative aspects of religious development: they are the
anabolism and katabolism of spiritual vitality.
There is, however, a difference between doubt and unbelief.
In normal doubt a battle is fought about spiritual values.
Unbelief is a general, negative attitude towards spiritual
realities.
1 Experimentelle Psychologie, Philosophische Handbibliotek, Bd. V, München.
125
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
