by frankiespeakin 11 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
He sure does,, I like his takes on religion and religious experiences and how they can heal the soul. Jung would like to see a 4 in one God over a 3 in one,, God the father, son and HS,,, and Satan a Quaternity instead of a Trinity.
Quaternity image below. The Father, the Son, and the HS are the upper three points, and it reaches down to us (or we reach up to it). With these three, we form the bottom point, and in uniting with the other Three, we are whole.
That's my little Jungian take.
BTS
BTS,
That is definately one example,,as far as I can see.
How about this on Jung and Religion:
http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~ppp/dow/dow11.html
Figure XI.3: Jung and Christianity-12 Parallels
Before looking at how Jung's psychology challenges Christianity, let's briefly examine his view of religion in general. Jung believed religions that function properly serve as "great psychic healing systems" (CW 13.478). This is because a healthy religion (i.e., one that fulfills its true purpose) will provide a way of uniting opposites in human nature and in the experiences of individual members. Religious concepts are naturally divided into opposites, such as heaven and hell, body and spirit, sin and salvation, etc. Depending on how such oppositions are interpreted, the people belonging to a particular religious group will experience either personal growth or personal stagnation. Stressing one side of the opposition to the exclusion of the other tends to disintegrate the personality, whereas an emphasis on overcoming the opposition pushes a person toward wholeness. Jesus' teaching repeatedly exemplifies the latter. One of many good examples is his command that we must love our enemies (Matt. 5:44). The natural human tendency is to polarize the opposition between "friend" and "enemy", loving the former and hating the latter. By insisting that the unlovable (-A) be regarded as lovable (A), Jesus is utilizing synthetic logic (see TP, Ch.10) in just the way Jung suggests all healthy religion must.
Religious principles such as "love your enemy" are not mere abstractions; they can do their unifying work only when they become real to us in and through our life-experiences. Every human being, according to Jung, has experiences that are essentially religious whenever we face oppositions and respond to them. For religion is essentially our response to life. Life's key question is: What do I live for? To this there are only two basic answers: myself or others. As we have seen in the previous two weeks, to live only for oneself is to choose the path of evil, leading to disintegration, whereas to live for others is to choose the path of love, leading to wholeness. The "decisive question" in choosing our path, Jung tells us, is whether or not we are "related to something infinite" (MDR 325). Most religious people call this "God"; many psychologists call it "Self"; some poets may prefer to call it "Love". In any case, the path of uniting opposites (the authentic religious path) requires us to follow this infinite nature within ourselves, rather than to follow the "safer" option of grasping only one side of the opposition.
The problem, of course, is that religious people down through the ages have often been more guilty than anyone else of failing to unify the opposites of life. Thus Jung's comments on traditional religion, especially the Christianity of his youth, sometimes appear to be negative. Yet as we examine some of these views, we must always remember that his aim is to reform Christianity, not to destroy it altogether. The latter would be totally inconsistent with his conviction that problems must be worked through, not simply eradicated. With this in mind, let us now discuss four specific challenges Jung's psychology presents to any Christian taking this course (cf. JC 81-157): (1) learn to understand how God's guidance works; (2) take advantage of your tradition's rich symbolism; (3) live like Christ; and (4) take seriously the reality of evil. In the remainder of this lecture we shall examine the first three of these challenges, leaving a brief review of the fourth for Lecture 33.
The most basic type of religious experience in any living religion is the experience of God's guidance, sometimes also referred to as a calling. Jung's psychology teaches us that this experience can happen only if the ego is submitted to the Self. In other words, we can hear God's guidance only if we are willing to listen; and listening to God requires us to be humble enough to admit that our ego does not have all the answers. (This need for an initial recognition of ignorance when approaching God is much like that needed in philosophy when approaching metaphysical questions [see Part One of TP].) Religious people should be the most adept at hearing God's guidance-and many are. Unfortunately, there are tendencies in every organized religion that can discourage people from hearing God's voice. Let's look at two examples from the Christian tradition, one Catholic and one Protestant.
