- Vincent Kundukulam
A good number of psychologists and religious scholars has ever had a high level of interest in the dialogue between theology and psychology. Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was one among them. Jung considered that the relation between psychology and religion is intense and enriching for humanity. He often used the term psyche and God interchangeably. To him, the psychological healing is intertwined with the religious modes of persons.
As psychologist, Jung thought that the verbal expressions, let it be, descriptions, poetic expressions or abstract formulations, they all are words about psyche. He found that it is equally valid in the case of human intuitions, images and feelings. In all these products of consciousness what matters psychologists is the subjective referent; how does the individual lives them. When the patients, religious experts and authorities and ordinary persons speak about God, Jung pays attention to the involvement of the subject, which he calls self.
In the domain of psyche, the self is an entity that is superordinate to the ego or the so-called I. As regards psychology, all the articulations of the person about the ultimate or the superordinate or the governing power pertain to the realm of self. The narrations, dreams and values the individuals give regarding the ultimate unveil the relationship between ego and self. In the self, Jung has identified the presence of a superordinate agent, which is not of the ultimate status but something definitely beyond ego. He calls it archetype. Archetype is considered to be a numinous part or aspect of the self. It is the aura of power that gives an impression of the holy to the ego. Jung tried to have access to the subjective world of people by studying what the individuals express about God.
The Jungian reading into the Christian revelation on the basis of psychological paradigms give rise to new way of understanding the mysteries of faith. He interprets the Old Testament as a memory of the process of individuation happened out of what the Israelites collectively experienced within their collective psyche. In this common narrative, the self is God; it created the egos like Adam and Eve; the ego fell into a state of inflation and tried to become autonomous. Consequently, it the ego got separated from the self. Then the self, remained archaic for certain time. Later, thanks to the process of evolution, a more conscious ego got appeared in the person of Job. The self, continued to unveil himself in prophecies, and finally it got ego-consciousness in the incarnated person, Jesus of Nazareth. The Holy Spirit represents the emergence of the transcendent function in the human psyche.
The Jungian narrative of the mystery of Trinity is also punching. He describes Trinity as a symbol of the self: the Father represents the source of power and energy within the psyche. He is the prime mover. The Son represents an emergent structure of consciousness, the self-alienated ego. The Holy Spirit represents the mediating structure between the self and the ego.
Jung’s attempt was to measure the adequacy of the statements about the self. He realized that the words about God are also words about psyche as the religious words of psyche are also words about God.
