Is Viktor Frankl a Christian?

Question

His book, Man's Search for Meaning, seems to resonate with Christianity, but he doesn't talk much about his faith in his autobiography, recollections. In fact, that section is quite ambiguous. So, does anyone know if Viktor Frankl is a Christian, more specifically, a Protestant or Catholic, or if not, an atheist, or agnostic, or some other belief / philosophy? Please include a source if possible.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Actually, he was Jewish:

"Frankl was born in Vienna into a Jewish family of civil servants (Beamtenfamilie). His interest for psychology surfaced early. For the final exam (Matura) in Gymnasium, he wrote a paper on the psychology of philosophical thinking. After graduating from Gymnasium in 1923, he studied medicine at the University of Vienna and later specialized in neurology and psychiatry, concentrating on the topics of depression and suicide. He had personal contact with Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler."


Viktor Frankl (who had studied with Freud and Jung when young).[citation needed] Then early in his career he was sent to a Nazi concentration camp where he survived from 1941 through 1945. In the camps he mentally re-wrote his first book whose manuscript had been confiscated at the time of his arrest. He called his theory Logotherapy and the book was Man's Search for Meaning. Speaking at a seminar in Anaheim, California in the early 1990's, Frankl stated that in the camps he would, at times, pretend to himself that he was actually in the future, remembering his experiences and noting how he was able to survive them. His years of suffering took him to the conclusion that even in the worst imaginable of circumstances, life can be assigned a worthwhile meaning. This conclusion was the heart of Frankl's psychological orientation. Logotherapy asserts that all human beings have a will to find meaning, and that serious behavioral problems develop when they cannot find it. The therapy helps patients handle the responsibility of choices and the pain of unavoidable suffering by helping them decide to give life meaning."

and

"Born March 26, 1905, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (present-day Austria); died September 2, 1997, in Vienna, Austria, of heart failure. Viktor E. Frankl, a Jewish psychiatrist and author, drew on his experiences as a survivor of the Holocaust (Nazi Germany's campaign to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe during World War II) to develop the discipline of logotherapy, a form of psychotherapy that, by stressing the need to find meaning even in the most tragic circumstances, offered solace to millions of readers of his classic work, Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy."

Answer 2

Viktor Frankl Religion

Answer 3

What about this 'quote' (?) "The way in which a man accepts his fate, and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity--even under the most difficult circumstances-to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified, and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forego the opportunity of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him."

Answer 4

I second JohnSlat's answer. Frankl was Jewish.