The Science of the Cure

As a follow-up to last week’s posting on Orthodox Psychotherapy …

Psychology is very definitely not a theology; it is a natural science that seeks to describe experienceable psychic phenomena … But as empirical science it has neither the capacity nor the competence to decide the questions of truth and value, this being the perogative of theology.

Carl Jung in Mysterium Coniunctionis

[I]t is clear that Christianity is principally a science which cures, that is to say, a psycho-therapeutic method and treatment. The same should be said of theology. It is not a philosophy but mainly a therapeutic treatment. Orthodox theology shows clearly that on the one hand it is a fruit of therapy and on the other ahnd it points the way to therapy. In other words, only those who have been cured and have attained communion with God are theologians, and they alone can show Christians the true way to reach the “place” of cure. So theology is both a fruit and a method of cure.

Hierotheos Vlachos in Orthodox Psychotherapy – The Science of the Fathers