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    Answer to Job: (From Vol. 11 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung)
    Answer to Job: (From Vol. 11 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung)
    Answer to Job: (From Vol. 11 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung)
    Ebook219 pages3 hours

    Answer to Job: (From Vol. 11 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung)

    By Sonu Shamdasani, Carl Jung and R. F.C. Hull

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    About this ebook

    Considered one of Jung's most controversial works, Answer to Job also stands as Jung's most extensive commentary on a biblical text. Here, he confronts the story of the man who challenged God, the man who experienced hell on earth and still did not reject his faith. Job's journey parallels Jung's own experience--as reported in The Red Book: Liber Novus--of descending into the depths of his own unconscious, confronting and reconciling the rejected aspects of his soul.


    This paperback edition of Jung's classic work includes a new foreword by Sonu Shamdasani, Philemon Professor of Jung History at University College London. Described by Shamdasani as "the theology behind The Red Book," Answer to Job examines the symbolic role that theological concepts play in an individual's psychic life.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPrinceton University Press
    Release dateJan 12, 2012
    ISBN9781400839131
    Answer to Job: (From Vol. 11 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung)
    Author

    Sonu Shamdasani

    Sonu Shamdasani is Vice-Dean (International) of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and Co-Director of the UCL Health Humanities Centre. He works on the history of psychology and psychiatry. His research follows two intersecting vertices: the reconstruction of the formation of modern psychological disciplines and therapeutics from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, and a reconstruction of the formation of work of Jung, based on primary archival materials. He has written six monographs and edited six volumes, which have together been translated into more than 20 languages.

    Read more from Sonu Shamdasani

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    • 4/5
      Four stars because it greatly expanded my view of the interpersonal dynamics of important Biblical events.

    Book preview

    Answer to Job - Sonu Shamdasani

    man.

    I

    564

    Job answers Yahweh thus:

    Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer thee?

    I lay my hand on my mouth.

    I have spoken once, and I will not answer;

    twice, but I will proceed no further.¹

    565

    And indeed, in the immediate presence of the infinite power of creation, this is the only possible answer for a witness who is still trembling in every limb with the terror of almost total annihilation. What else could a half-crushed human worm, grovelling in the dust, reasonably answer in the circumstances? In spite of his pitiable littleness and feebleness, this man knows that he is confronted with a superhuman being who is personally most easily provoked. He also knows that it is far better to withhold all moral reflections, to say nothing of certain moral requirements which might be expected to apply to a god.

    566

    Yahweh’s justice is praised, so presumably Job could bring his complaint and the protestation of his innocence before him as the just judge. But he doubts this possibility. How can a man be just before God?² If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.³ If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?⁴ He multiplies my wounds without cause.⁵ He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.⁶ If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.⁷ I know, Job says to Yahweh, thou wilt not hold me innocent. I shall be condemned.⁸ If I wash myself  . . . never so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch.⁹ For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment.¹⁰ Job wants to explain his point of view to Yahweh, to state his complaint, and tells him: Thou knowest that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of thy hand.¹¹ I desire to argue my case with God.¹² I will defend my ways to his face,¹³ I know that I shall be vindicated.¹⁴ Yahweh should summon him and render him an account or at least allow him to plead his cause. Properly estimating the disproportion between man and God, he asks: Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?¹⁵ God has put him in the wrong, but there is no justice.¹⁶ He has taken away my right.¹⁷ Till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go.¹⁸ His friend Elihu the Buzite does not believe the injustice of Yahweh: Of a truth, God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not pervert justice.¹⁹ Illogically enough, he bases his opinion on God’s power: Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? and to princes, Ye are ungodly?²⁰ One must respect the persons of princes and esteem the high more than the low.²¹ But Job is not shaken in his faith, and had already uttered an important truth when he said: Behold, my witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high . . . my eye pours out tears to God, that he would maintain the right of a man with God, like that of a man with his neighbour.²² And later: "For I know that my Vindicator lives, and at last he will stand upon the

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