My Dear Father White, Oct. 5th, 1945
In the meantime I have finished reading the pamphlets you kindly have sent to me.
My first reaction was: what a pity, that you live in England and that I have you not at my elbow, when I am blundering in the wide field of theological knowledge. . . .
Excuse the irreverential pun: You are to me a white raven inasmuch as you are the only theologian I know of who has really understood something of what the problem of psychology in our present
world means.
You have seen its enormous implications.
I cannot tell you how glad I am that I know a man, a theologian, who is conscientious enough to weigh my opinions on the basis of a careful study of my writings!
This is a really rare occasion. . . .
Thus, when I said that God is a complex, I meant to say: whatever He is, he is at least a very tangible complex.
You can say, He is an illusion, but He is at least a psychological fact.
I surely never intended to say: He is nothing else but a complex. . . .
You have rendered justice to my empirical and practical standpoint throughout. I consider this as a very meritorious act, since most of my philosophically or theologically minded readers overlook my empiricism completely.
I never allow myself to make statements about the divine entity, since such would be a transgression beyond the limit of science. . . .
My personal view in this matter is that man’s vital energy or libido is the divine pneuma alright. . . . ~Carl Jung to Victor White, 5Oct1945
