This is a study of how unconscious psychological projections can distort our image of God and of both divine and human love. Believer, non-believer or undecided, every one of us is influenced in our quest by unconscious projections that, in part, condition our instinctive conception of God and therefore our personal beliefs. By unmasking such influences, this book attempts to lift the major obstacles that may arise in someone's quest for meaning or on the way to a spiritual experience: doubts about the existence of a God of love in the face of a world where evil is prominent; secret fears of God allied to genuine difficulty in believing oneself worthy of love; persistent images of a rather distant or frightening Divine Being; unhelpful contrasts between science and faith, psychology and theology, sexuality and spirituality...The author invites us to discover more fully the divine love that we know only imperfectly and from which all human love is called to draw the desire and strength to aspire to its highest level of intensity.

Table of Contents

Foreword; Introduction; Does the existence of evil contradict the existence of a God of love?; Feelings of guilt and secret fears of God; From distant condescension to mutual love; Imperfectly known aspects of an even greater love; Epilogue: Love between God and humans: the ultimate meaning of love, the ultimate meaning of life; Endnotes.

About the Author

Brother Emmanuel joined the ecumenical community at Taize in 1989. The community has become a focus of Christian spirituality where tens of thousands of young adults are welcomed every year from all over the world. Aware of the invaluable support that may be drawn from a fruitful encounter between psychology and theology, the author shares in this book 'the essential realisations and the most ground-shaking inner discoveries' that formed the milestones in his eighteen years of monastic life.

Reviews

"'Brother Emmanuel has no fear: this is the least we can say. Where some have already politely applauded the verses of the brother of Taize, others will be tempted to greet the chasm he has opened..' Eglise Catholique de Bruxelles"