Carl Jung on Catholicism and Protestantism
To Pastor Paul Metraux
Dear Pastor Metraux, 23 May 1945
Protestantism is above all a religion for adults-if it is understood.
The Catholic Church is a mother, but the role played by Protestantism is more that of the father.
Protestantism makes the child into a man, and every man has a different point of view.
Therefore the fact that Protestantism is divided seems to me to be precisely the guarantee of its vitality.
I consider this dissociation a sign of life with nothing basically alarming about it.
I am convinced that Protestantism answers a fundamental human need, because Catholicism puts too much church between God and man, whereas-for the weak Protestantism does not put enough between God and man.
As far back as the Old Testament we can see that most courageous men were only just able to bear the presence of God.
Yours sincerely, ~C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 368.
