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As religious psychology became established as an academic discipline, during Interwar France, the mystical experience of Saint John of the Cross became paradigmatic of the shifting relationship between the social sciences and Catholic philosophy and theology. Catholic religious psychology, which, in order to acknowledge the supernatural dimension of religious life, was more experimental than speculative, began to gradually emerge, in particular thanks to the teachings of historical criticism. Under the influence of the social sciences, theology was also driven to adopt a more phenomenological approach. The very relevance of mystical experience was itself finally challenged by the development of psychoanalysis.