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Simon Doniger, editor of these “key essays on the problems and possibilities of human nature,” is well suited for the task since he is one of the founding editors of Pastoral Psychology and has edited other books on the subject of religion and mental health. This reviewer, one of the pioneers in the field, considers it a privilege to have been asked by the editors of this Journal to evaluate these essays.
Doniger has dedicated this book to Seward Hiltner, Professor of Theology and Personality at Princeton Theological Seminary, an outstanding teacher, scholar, and leader in the field of the relation between religion, psychology, and psycho-pathology. Hiltner deserves the strongest expression of gratitude for his contributions which led from controversy to the possibility of dialogue. Progress in this direction is best manifested in the successful work of the magazine, “Pastoral Psychology” and, in the growth of the Academy of Religion and Mental Health. This organization's interesting publications and conferences have attracted the attention of clergymen of all denominations, psychiatrists, psychologists, and others who find its aims and programs satisfying to their emotional and intellectual needs.
Twenty-three contributors attempt, in this book, to illuminate the nature of man from theological and psychological perspectives. Outstanding scholars in the various fields are represented: theologians Paul Tillich, James McCord, and Willard Sperry; psychologists Paul Pruyser and Carl Rogers; psychiatrists Edith Weigert, Franz Alexander, and Karl Menninger; and anthropologist Margaret Mead. The articles were written during a period of about fifteen years, and have as much validity now as when first published.
The “Symposium on Human Nature Can Change” (Am. J. Psychoanal. 1952), which presented the ideas of Horney, Kelman, Weiss, and Tillich not only is part of the book, but also forms the hub around which the series rotates. Rereading the text of this symposium is an even mo