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This has been a lively and rich conversation. I am pleased to have been part of it and have the sense it could have gone on for a very long time, given everyone's degree of interest and uniqueness of perspective. Some thoughts I have in response to the discussion papers follow.
In his discussion, Elliot Jurist raises the question of potential conflict between believing in God and maintaining one's autonomy. I don't find this to be the case. Just as in human relationships, there is an ongoing dialectic between one's autonomy and one's connectedness, with either holding the potential for becoming imbalanced relative to the other. Jurist also expresses concern in asking, “Will the analyst feel the obligation to convince the patient of his/her own beliefs or will the analyst respect them?” This is basically a concern about proselytizing. My thought is that the analyst will be no more or less likely to impose this subjective reality on a patient as he/she imposes other subjective realities on patients, hopefully refraining in both instances.
Haque stated that describing oneself as a “freelance monotheist” implies confusion about which one God. From my point of view, drawing on the many metaphors and ways of experiencing God is reflective of the multidimensionality of The Ineffable. It deepens and enriches the experience of God. Like Jurist, Haque has concerns about the therapist/patient match on religion. He states, “The ideal situation would be for the therapist and client to share the same religious values.” If it is a match that's needed, I would place it on the fundamentalist-liberal continuum. A patient and therapist being fundamentalists from two different religions would be a better fit than a fundamentalist and liberal from the same religion. This indeed may be the place a freelance monotheist is called for!
The model Grayson offers—to think about the synergy between spirituality and psychoanalysis—puts the dynamic between the two into words I find extremely helpful