“Vigilance in the face of evil may give rise to preoccupation with evil. And, as the Fathers of the Church thought, if we are unduly preoccupied by evil, we become evil. There is danger in giving more thought to the things we are against than the things we are for. It is easier to have distrust than to have faith. The story of the early church shows clearly that it is the positive in faith which conquers the world.”
Stern, a psychiatrist and neurologist, was a convert to Catholicism from Judaism. This book, a favorite of Flannery O’Connor’s, argues that Freudian psychology is compatible with, and in fact deeply rooted in, Christian beliefs.
