Today this series on the intersections of Christianity and the Jungian idea of the shadow comes to an end. It’s been a bit disorganized and all over the place, but I do hope it’s been interesting and beneficial. The main idea is simply this: that the stories we tell, including and especially our religious stories, … Continue reading The Christian Shadow: Concluding Thoughts
At the very start of his earthly ministry, Jesus proclaims “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 4.17). I’ve long maintained that repentance is more than just about acknowledging our sins (though this is unquestionably an essential part of it), but is really about taking on a whole new way of seeing … Continue reading The Shadow and the Beatitudes
Towards the start of this series, we looked at Carl Jung’s simultaneous critique of Christian doctrine and abiding appreciation for the figure of Christ himself. There we saw how the traditional, biblical Christian understanding of faith existed in a place of healthy creative tension between the two opposites Jung proposed, imitation (which he didn’t like) … Continue reading Shadow Integration and the Incarnation
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
Matthew Root 