Originally published in 1946 Creation Continues seems even more appropriate in today’s disintegrating social, economic and political structures on a global scale. For we realize now more than in 1946 that war and aggression do not solve the problem of greed and selfishness. But in this time of upheaval where do we find the stability and perhaps even the motivation to strive for a life of meaning and of value? Some look to religion not as a security, still less as the answer, but rather as an experience of faith, an encounter with the Greater-than-I Power beyond life and yet within life. This is where Fritz Kunkel’s approach is helpful.

Kunkel, who died in 1956, was a psychologist of the “new” religion. He studied with Alfred Adler and was strongly influenced by C.G. Jung. His own therapeutic approach called “We Psychology” uses life crises as opportunities for human growth. Kunkel proposed to understand the impact of Jesus’ personality on his disciples and subsequently upon us. He sees Matthew as a teacher who leads his students through the same evolution of consciousness experienced by the disciples and perhaps, in a sense, by Jesus himself: from fear and doubts through amazement and despair to the final awakening to courage and creativeness. From spiritual, psychological “feudalism” to the bursting forth on Easter morning of the “light from Beyond” out of the darkness of the tomb and the darkness in the disciples’ own hearts following the crucifixion. He invites the reader to the same evolution.

Creation Continues is a psychological study, true. Yet it fits very well into what was once known as “monastic theology” the theology based on inner, personal experience and the growth and maturing of that experience into a deep faith, love and wisdom. In the 1973 edition the complete quotations from the Gospel were inserted and retained in this new edition, just before the discussion and/or reflections prepared by Kunkel—a convenience that facilitates a lectio divina use of the book. And yet in Kunkel’s eyes, the author of the Gospel writes to “force his readers into a process of inner growth, partly against their will and certainly beyond their expectation,” applicable as much to the lay person as to the monastic. In fact, the maturity to realize the Beyond within, culminates, according to Kunkel, in the experience of St. Paul: “I live; yet not I but Christ lives in me,” which in a certain sense cannot be confined to Christianity alone. The great Japanese Buddhist philosopher, Nieshitani commenting on this text, once stated: “That makes sense to me immediately. . . . [It] is a statement I believe I understand only too well. . . . Allow me only to ask: Who is speaking here?” Ultimately only those who share this experience really “know”.

Fritz Kunkel’s Creation Continues will attract a wide readership.