866 / Review fr Religious, Volume 38, 1979/6 ‘masts is anything but over, The overcoming of ev then snot a matter ‘only of coming to greater coneciousnese, even tf aspiation ra moral de- ‘mand of our time. And achieving greater consciousness ill not relate {00d and evil, but eather wil sharpen our ability to differenate what i ‘worthwhile from what is worthless, seductive, malicious. The process of coming to greater consciousness isa process of conversion. Itinvelvesa more ‘icersing rejection of whet is evi, not «compromise with ei in our ives Good and ei remain contraiciores. They cannot be integrated scan sir. and mate, or the masculine and ferinine dimensions of the pecsonality, which are not contrediciores, but conraris, ‘The ground of the individuation process, then, must be the gt of God's love, andthe eye ofthat ove whic sath. And the goal ofthe proces nat, propery symbolized in the utely closed mandala with no opening onto the Absolutely transcendent. The symbolic significance of Christi lear: inthe ‘moment when the powers of darknes ate unlested against him becuse hes from God, be sutenders tothe incomprehensible realty tht lis beyond thst small door atthe furthest dimensions of the self, and he comes in vetry through that door into the highest presence, to the right hand of that g00d God who in Chis has proposed once and fo ll is redemptive solution to the problem of evi864 / Review fr Religious, otume 38, 1979/6 fore! despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes"™"—1 touch my forehead tothefloorin adoration. ‘The dream reflects, Ibeleve, Jung's ambivalent atte to that inl step incoming tothe point, the condition, of complete simplicity. Theresa fac ‘ation with the Wholeness ofthe mandala, ofthe self, of nature, that pe vents him from granting thatthe mandala snot self-enclosed, that there ist small door that opens fom the centr of the self through the mystery of sat. ‘ering, onto the incomprehensibily of a God in relation o whom We haveto ‘adopt the final posture of Job himself. But, “Something in me," says Jug, "as defiant and determined not to bea dur fish." ‘The Mystery of Evil and the Incomprehensbiltyof God What that defiance, that millimeter to spre, meant in terms of Sun's nal religious testament isnt dificult to discover. There is an option made io limit our understanding ofthe deepest dimensions of our selves the on tours of the mandals-saped counc-hall thee is expressed in Jung's de nce a desire noo transcend the realm of natutein order to come to thea ‘of our journey to individuation, nor to acknowledge the sll door that ads beyond the self and its wholenes and into the dimension ofthe otherworldly ‘and incomprehensible, a desire not surrender gnosis to fit, since the a pect of reality that beckons us to this opening of the slf-beyond tel isthe mystery of sfering, the inclination not to be opened beyond oneself, nto fall ino the incomprehensibiity of Gog, is an ineination to reset the ft. ‘that the final step in the journey snot our own doing, not even the dong of the despe center ofthe se, but the activity of God, an activity that set, fully comprehensible in natural terms. Ths God who opens us through sa fering to his own incompreheasibility a to our happiness and fulflieat is ‘then viewed as evil aswel as good. The atiude adopted toward him sone anger. This means for Jung that Crist cannot be the fll embodiment and revelation ofthis Go, for Christi only good. Stan, to, must be viewed et ‘revelation of God, asthe fourth pesoa inthe Godhead. In hs late book, ‘Aion, Jang reverts to astrological speculation in order to explain where history ofthe image of God i heading. We are, Jung says, al the end of th astrological age, Pisces, an age symbolized by the warring shes, and we stand atthe Beginning ofa new age of Aquarius, whose syrabol ithe Ano. ‘pos, the human beingin whom the opposites are reconciled. Christ and Sean ate the warring fishes and in the age of Aquaris they will be recone {through the emergence of Antropes, the realization of the individuated sl. ‘This means that human bengs are helping God to find himself to gt beyoad his own inser contradictions. We have to redeem God from his own unc Jungian Psychology and Christion Spiriualiy: 1 / 985 ssiousness. The overcoming of evi the, reduced fo a mater of achieving treater consciousness through this proces evil and good come tobe reat ‘ine, and to capable of being iterated with one another. We are encour- ‘aged io adopt a diferent atitde to ei: nt to reject it, but to give ita place in our lives. Then the final opposition, that of good and ei, wll be over- come, and te image of God wil lot is fearsome aspect of incomprehens- ‘ily precisely inthe proces through which the self comes to Integration, CCrislan theology would offer en steraatve interpretation of the same Issues. Most radically it would suggest that we must make the option not to limit the deepest dimensions of the reaches of our imentionality to the con- {ours ofthe closed mandala, but rust ackrowiedge the small door that ends ‘beyond the self end onto the oher-woraly dimension ofthe incomprehens- billy of God, It inthe timiesituations of suffering, lst, and ultimately death that we are beckoned to this opening of the self. And nor to open ‘oneself to the mystery of God in these situations is evil, « denial of our ‘ceaturehood, what Ernst Becker would calla cauasu project" «dese to ‘beGodririsfaitr norgnoss, thatenables ws to fllinto'the incomprehens- bitty of Goda nto our tue happiness and flfliment. The mystery of evils ‘oot, 20! n Godsincomprehensblty, but in the radical depotentiation of| ‘moral agency tat Christian tradition bas called original sin, and even more radially in that whole dzension of elt that St.Paul was struggling to a= tevlate when he spoke of “principals and powers." Christi the inca tion of o's saving purpose in oot regard tbe fll and explicit sacrament of the divinely originated solution tothe problem of evil Satan isthe expression ‘ofall hs enmity of God inthe world that will nt susender to Goes incom- Dyehensible purpose, and that want the conc that comes (kom being the ‘use of onecl the contol that refuses fal and chooses gnosis. Christ and Satan are reconcilble enemies, inthe same way a is expressed in the fact. that one cannot both surrender and not surrender at the same time, cannot both touch one's forehead tothe floor snd sl eave a millimeter to spare ‘The astrological speculations about the age of Aquarius are themselves pure smyth posing as scence, and so grass. Fore sient such as Sung to tra to such speculations represents a disreputable neglect of the evidence. And the ‘vidence found in the eondlons ofthe contemporary world hardly inspires ‘to belive that, by some natural course of evets, all contradictions and en alles are about to come to an end, andthe human race about 1 achieve & ‘armony wih tse and with naar through a natural reconcliation of good fd eil The requirement for peace an justice in our world is stil he same asi always hasbeen; acepting the divinely originated solution tothe prob- ie of el that comes to us in Christ Jesus; allowing Cod to transform us Ino agents of love and justice and reeoelation; and bering the sufering ‘tat the powere of el wll unleash on ws bcaste of our option. The age of eae CG fon, Memarie, Dron, Rf 9-338 : mt Daher Fe Deal fh en Va Te Fe re, A852 / Review for Religious, Volume 38, 1979/6 ‘ound the sl." Baward Edinger, inhi book go and Archetype, expiity speaks of St. Paul's conversion as an example of the encounter withthe 411. The relation ofthe human person to God is immaneaized, 50 tht t becomes a elation of ego 10 self. Prayer, the, i erally reduced to aking to one's ef Its not to be ridiculed Tor that reason, fortis peschologicaly Important forth ego tobe in eelation tothe sl 1 propose to examine a dream of Jung's shortly before he wote his mest, controversial work, Answer to Job, where these problems come to expt formulation. {wil offer ofthis eam Christian theological interpretation, one with which orthodox Jungian will mot likely not be happy, but one he A feast establishes the isue on which, T Bellove, « Christan adaptation of Sung cones. nthe portion ofthis dream that is most relevant to our consideration, Sung is ina large hall with his father. The hall Big, elrelar room with ‘alley running elong the wal, from which foe Bridges le to asia Shaped centr. The basin ests ona huge columa, and forms the round set of | Moslem sultan, who from this round set speak o bis counllor nd pi losophers, who themselves it along the wall athe gllery. The scene i, a8 Sung says, gigantic mandala," ie. a symbol ofthe self. To quote June {ne em enya ht ote ete 1 of a ed Spat onthe wana lager caropose ely, Ae tp te ‘heuer nad as hy indore teu saber share ved Ura Ag bess enw Dd tne oye ek os fe ashe, oom aes ‘esbagon Ura inte ae th ney.” ‘And wit Jung says about tis portion of the dream I he fliowing: (eet gene ese of Alter be re hoa ot thane ee eat han isu punt, ded tte enemy. Urabe eso In what follows itis important to remember that this dream prfigures J's writing of his Answer fo Job, which vividly portays his conven ia Engr Eo and ace ie Yar, © 6 na Fosaaon, Hp IS ene ene a Vita PE Gennes, tne: Paced eo Jungian Paychology and Christian Spiritual: I / 883 that God is ambivalent, dat God isnot the highest good, as Christianity Would have i Bat tne ist sy how Literpret this dear, and then we wll cramine June's understancig oft. Jung. was always fecnated by the mandala aa symbol of wholeness. ‘when esa te eouncl hall ofthe sultan in Indi, liad to make a deep m= prewsion on him, and this impression remained in his memory, ready tobe - leaed into consciousness once again as a way of portraying the wholeness that, he believed, was the goal ofthe proces of individuation, The mandala, then, symbelies the integrated self, which is both center and totality ofthe sersonaity. As center, isthe sultan, the higher authority, the king in the fiddle ofthe round room, giving out his orders to his mses who sur- found him, and who together with him constitute the totality. But his higher tathoriy is telf nature; is thi worldly. The sultan i a lord oft ord.” ‘hie bigher authority i the "greater personality, the inner man,” ‘hich has an impact “upon the life of every individual." Jung's father, ‘ho himself had been a clergyman and whose fith had always dsatised Sung, tl hi that ther is a tl higher authority, the highest presence, be yond the door atthe top of the fight of tas, ats spot high up onthe wall, hich no longer corresponded to reality,” ie, which was other-wondly. ‘The elation to this highest authority, this higher presece, i embodied in the tanocent suffering ofthe Just One, hee Uriah, whom Jung ses as a pre- Fgurement of Chit, The mystery ofthe suffering ofthe innocent points be- yond nature and calls one tothe response that Jung's father shows inthe tiem, the response of touching one's forehead fo the Noor, the response of letingonesel fal into the incomprebensibility of Goda into true fulfilment ‘nd happiness, «response similar to Job's a the end of the book to which Jing ted to compose a response In this voluntary acceptance of innocent fering —what in Christ we alte law of theeross— evil loses its power, tad we are elevated into a zlationship that transcends the dimensions of ma- tue, a relationship beyond the perfect symmetry of nature's finest acheve- tents, Jungs father fs ling hi that thee isan other-woldy, superaat- tral authority, Mahest presence revealed in the mystery ofthe Chris, and ‘efore whose dominion te self has tobe stretched othe point of adoration, tbmission, and ultimate sence. Tht i the ral aniwer to Tob, the answer fat Job himself came to, the answer of Job when God questioned im: “here wete you when I laid the foundations ofthe earth?” Interestingly, tale n the dream, Jung's father bad been reading from Genesis, and ex trunding eloquently on i, but Jung found his athe’ words incomprebensi- {even hough he marveled at them, And what sit that Job answers when cafronted wit te incomprehensiblity of God? “I have utered what id te understand, things 100 wondeful for me, which T did not know. 1 Tas ear of yu bythe heurng ofthe ear, but now my eyes se you. Ther- a, omar, Bs Ra