Religious but Not Religious (Lecture)

Religious but Not Religious (Lecture)
with Jason Smith

Friday, March 24 | 7 – 9 pm
Held Online via Zoom 
Members $20, Non-Members $30

We live at a time when traditional religious structures are in decline. Today an increasing number of people identify themselves as “Spiritual but not Religious.” Though this movement reflects a felt need for greater interiority in the domain of religious experience, it has often been criticized as reflecting a secular consumer culture’s approach to the spirit, and lacking the important dimension of rigor and discipline. For his part, Carl Jung felt that the modern individual was badly in need of “the symbolic life” which had always found expression in traditional religion.

Drawing on his book, Religious but Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life, Jungian analyst Jason E. Smith explores Jung’s understanding of the psychological importance of religious experience through the lens of three questions: What is the symbolic life? Why do we need a symbolic life? and How can we cultivate a symbolic life?

Jason Smith is a Jungian analyst based in the beautiful Cape Ann region north of Boston, Massachusetts. He is a past president of the C.G. Jung Institute-Boston (now the C.G. Jung Institute of New England), where he continues to serve as a training analyst and a faculty member in the analytic training program. Currently, Jason has a private practice in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA, where he lives with his family. He is the creator and host of the podcast, Digital Jung and the author of Religious but Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life.