Last time, we looked at some of the ways our creation stories can help and hinder a Christian journey towards wholeness. The second of the two creation narratives in Genesis, of course, ends in the famous story Adam and Eve being cast out of Paradise after being tempted into eating the fruit of the Tree … Continue reading The Shadow and the Fall
On Friday we explored Jung’s claims that the Christian conception of God are insufficient to promote wholeness — that by pushing vast swaths of experience outside the divine, it instead promotes the division of the self into shadow and persona. In that post, I maintained that there are different ways of reading the Scriptures, that … Continue reading The Shadow and Creation
The first half of this series has attempted to show how traditional Christian practices have the power to act as shadow work, but also can, if we’re not careful, exacerbate the connected problems of a strong dark shadow and a bright but fragile persona. Today I’m going to turn the series to aspects of Christian … Continue reading The Shadow of God
This section in the series The Christian Shadow has been about the ways, contrary to Jung’s accusations, Christian teaching and practice helps the faithful engage with the shadow, the dark parts of ourselves we’d rather not exist, and certainly not come into the light of day. Over the next two posts, I’m going to end … Continue reading Shadow and the Sacraments, Part 1: Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist
In Thursday’s post, we saw how the general Christian call to repentance, which is embodied not only in conversion, but also in the rituals of baptism and confession, is a call to address the shadow — those parts of ourselves we reject or deny as being ‘us’. Today I’d like to explore how other sacred … Continue reading Shadow and Sacred Practices
Matthew Root 