You clearly understand that I am not a mystic but an empiricist.
Letters of C. G. Jung: Volume I, 1906-1950 (Vol 1)
To Norbert Drewitt, O.P.
Dear Father, 25 September 1937
I am much obliged to you for kindly sending me your offprints and notes.
It has interested me very much indeed to read them.
I was particularly satisfied with the fact that you clearly understand that I am not a mystic but an empiricist.
It is true however that a vivid interest in religion and religious truth has guided my research.
My chief curiosity was always the question: What does the human mind, inasmuch as it is a natural involuntary functioning, produce if left to itself?
Such a problem, of course, is only possible after a complete renunciation of all traditional truth, no matter how true it may be.
Whatever my statements are, they are always based upon experiences, and whatever I say is never intended to contradict or to defend an existing truth.
Its sole purpose is to express what I believe I have seen.
Whatever I try in the way of explanation, it never intends to explain away or to recommend or to advise, its sole purpose is to make a particular kind of experience generally and humanly understandable.
I see from your writings that you make a most serious attempt to understand and clarify an exceedingly involved situation.
Your standpoint is of course a positive creed, while I start from a complete lack of truth and understanding.
Yet we are working at the same problem.
I also am impressed by the fact of your complete sincerity and honesty.
I believe therefore that whatever the book you are writing may contain, it will be an honest attempt at a reconciliation of scientific statements with revealed truth.
I am inclined to believe from what I know already that such an enterprise is possible.
But I wish I could talk to you once personally in order to explain to you what my standpoint is in this matter.
I am afraid that I am unable to do it in a letter.
It would require too much Space and time.
I am coming to England next spring at the beginning of April and I should much appreciate it if you would kindly allow me to call on you once during my stay in London.
Sincerely yours,
C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 237.
