"Jacob's dream at Bethel", Catacombs, Via Latina. JUNG'S APPROACH.
One cannot help but be impressed by the extent to which Jung was steeped in biblical lore.
In none of his writings is he ever very far from the discussion of biblical themes or from the use of scriptural references to make his point.
In the preface of "Answer to Job", he stated, "I do not write as biblical scholar, but as a layman and physician who has been privileged to see deeply into the psychic life of many people".
He was not interested in the usual questions of biblical research - the meaning, origin, cultural background, and history behind biblical texts. He sought to find that meaning of the text that would speak to modern men and women in their present historical and cultural experience. He was less concerned with the origins of the texts than with their effects on the lives of contemporary readers.
Certainly Jung's use of the Bible was idiosyncratic.
For him it was a primary source of material that could be translated into terms of his psychological system - with particular emphasis on the symbolic dimension of scriptural references and events that he was able to conect with aspects of his own views about the role of myths and symbols in human psychic functioning and their connection with the collective unconscious and archetypal symbols.
Myths were not mere words or stories but living truths and psychic realities that exercise their power on the human soul by their use of symbolic language. Symbols thus served as the vehicles of psychic transformation that extended beyond the communication of meaning to the level of psychic integration and spiritual revitalization.
His effort was consistently directed to viewing Scripture in such way as to make it relevant to psychic concerns.
He argued that the religious propositions in the Bible had their origin in the human psyche and that their meaning was in some sense determined by psychic roots, whether conscious or unconscious. They are in effect psychic facts and relevant to psychic truth that are concerned with the illumination of the soul. Their aim and purpose is not to provide information but to bring about psychic change.
Jung endorced the view that "all Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim, 3:16).
Insofar as religious statements are "psychic confessions" deriving from the unconscious, they are like dreams that enter consciousness to inspire new insight and illumination. Thus, the prophets spoke of being seized by the word or spirit of God. The psyche becomes the place where the divine and human interact - trancendence is replaced by immanence. The Scripture becomes the vehicle and means of God's presence and action in the soul. Behind and in the words there is the Word.
CHRIST AS ARCHETYPE OF THE SELF.
A good example of this usage is Jung's development of Christ as a symbol for the integrated self.
The Self in Jung's psychology represents the unity and wholeness of the personality, embracing all psychic phemomena. It stands for the goal of integration of the total personality and individuality. This archetypal image is expressed in mandalas and in the heroes of myth and legend but above all in the image of Christ who "exemplifies the archetype of the Self".
As Jung comments in "Answer to Job", "Christ would never have made the impression He did on his followers if He had not expressed something that was alive and at work in their unconscious. Christianity itself would never have spread through the pagan world with such astonishing rapidity had its ideas not found an analogous psychic readiness to receive them".
He makes use of the St. John Gospel theme of Christ as the way, the truth, and the light.
Christ thus comes to symbolize the way of love, service, the life of the Spirit, salvation, and reconciliation.
Christ thus becomes the archetype of the Self : the Christ-event not only speaks to the soul but acts within it to awake, revive, cleanse, and save.
In psychological terms, the Christ-event means that to become true Selves we must acquire a broader consciousness that connects the sense of identity and wholeness with love of the neighbour. Love is the mark of the Christian.
Jung observes, "The men of that age were ripe for identification with the word made flesh, for the founding of a community united by an idea, in the name of which they could love one another and call each other brothers. The old idea of a mediator in whose name new ways of love would be opened, became a fact, and with that human society took an immense stride forward".
In this fashion Jung strove to bring the Scripture closer to vital interests and make it a force for psychic enrichement and integration - far different from his father' stale reverence for the words of Scripture rather than the relation of the Bible to real life and the God of life.
As he put it, "The Bible is not the words of God, but the Word of God". As the archetype of the Self, Christ becomes a real event in the life of the soul. Christ acts in the soul to draw out real effects and changes.
The Christ symbol brings with it a power through grace to become what one could not become on own's own ( William W. Meissner).