This post is the beginning of something a bit new for me -- a series based on a common theme. It is sometimes useful to return to an idea over time in order to watch it slowly blossom open, and that's what I'm hoping will happen here. First, some background.
Many years ago I bumped into Joseph Campbell's book, Hero with a Thousand Faces. I actually did bump into it, on my sister's bedroom floor. And she loaned it to me, and I read it, and discovered a whole new way of thinking about God and Jesus and salvation and what ails the human race. And while I don't necessarily think Campbell was right about everything in the book, the encounter with archetypal understandings of psychology, mythology, and religion has forever changed how I think and feel about the realm of faith and religion.
As a result of that encounter with Campbell, I developed an interest in works by or about C. G. Jung, and Jungian interpretations of religious and mythological narratives. In large part, that's what's driving my interest in the saints I am researching for my dissertation. It seems to be a bit of a road less traveled, but it's the road that is calling me, and has been for a long time. Jungian thought allows me to situate encounters with persons, places, events, ideas, truth claims, in a larger context of thought than simply "are they real?" or even "are they true?" If Jesus Christ was crucified 2000 years ago "for my sins," what does that mean today, for me, for anyone? If the crucifixion and resurrection happened once in history, how are they effective for all persons and all history? I can certainly surrender to the mystery of God and say, "Amen, so be it," but maybe there's a bit more that the human mind and heart, the soul and psyche, can intuit and understand about the great truths of faith.
Jung posited that the human psyche experiences life in terms of archetypes, basic forms that undergird how we think and feel and perceive. Some of these include the Archetype of the Child, or of the Great Mother, or of the Hero. Each of us is the Hero of our own life story, but there are larger stories, and greater Heroes as well. When I look at the Bible as the Larger Story, and Jesus as a Greater Hero, it creates a framework in which the eternal, universal dimension of the Christian faith becomes easier to see. I'm not suggesting Jesus never lived or died or rose again, as some seem to fear when Biblical truths are held up against an interpretive framework such as this. I am, however, pushing back a bit against an exclusivist reading of the Christian story. God must have ways of speaking to those who have never heard of Jesus Christ; an archetypal framework is one way of understanding how that might happen.
So, here's what I propose to do with this series. I've begun reading The Darkening Spirit: Jung, Spirituality, Religion by David Tacey, and every so often I come across a sentence or short passage that is so thought-provoking that I want to use it as a form of meditation - and I'm going to use the blog to do that. Here's an example: discussing two different meanings of the word "spirituality," Tacey says, "Spirituality inside religion refers to the capacity to enter into the core of a tradition and to weld it to experience. Spirituality outside religion refers to the capacity to bear witness to a depth dimension of experience that has been lacking during the period of high secularism." Now there's an idea, or two, that I'm planning to dive into and swim around in for a while!
I've linked the title over to Amazon in case anyone wants to see more about the book. The blogs are not meant to be book reviews, though, just a series of jumping off points. Or walking points. Anyone who wants to walk this road with me is more than welcome.
Blessings, Beth
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