Eastern Philosophy
Introduction Hermann Hesse’s novel Steppenwolf (1927) and its film adaptation (1974) are readily interpreted through the framework of Carl Jung’s analytical psychology. At its core, the novel describes, through the main proponent Harry a failed individuation process, Hesse’s own personal crisis. The “Treatise on the Steppenwolf” as part of the novel functions as an internal … Continue reading
As an unchurched catholic Christian, I’ve gained some of my most valuable insights into spirituality from Zen Buddhism. I’ve finally managed to stay with a daily meditation routine and encountered exquisite beauties and powerful insights which helped me to regain my footing in the current world in crisis crisis and cultural decay of the West and all their institutions. Continue reading
A recurring thought in books about Jesus is the thought that every time created its own Jesus. Jesus, like the virgin birth, the crucifix and resurrection, is a major symbol in the Jungian sense of the word, an abstract archetype one can fill with our own multiple meanings recognized in very culture, even non-christian. Now if we look for the many faces of Jesus, we may get access to him as a person,scholarly (theologically), from contemporary views, from other main religions, from sworn enemies of any religion and from the father of symbols – C.G. Jung.
The historical Jesus almost gets buried under his construction, even the catholic church rarely refers to him as real historic person in recent writings. Sometimes it seems that Jesus in the Gospel was also such a creation realizing the striking similarity of New Testament symbols with the Egyptian pantheon and myths. Those faces is what this article is all about. The best I have read in that regard about Jesus is from C.G. Jung, so lets start with him. Warning, this is just an essay but a rather lengthy one. Continue reading
Jung has been often (rightfully) seen of being a contemporary Gnostic. However, the interpretations which Jung places on Gnosticism and the texts which Jung refers to on alchemy, were often Kabbalistic, so much so that one would be more justified in calling the Jung of the Mysterium Coniunctionis or Kabbalistic in contemporary disguise. One of the most serious and arguably criticisms against … Continue reading
Maybe it’s because I am an “unchurched”, humanist religious person, but todays anti-religious tracts and rants do bore me. However, a new book of the primatologist Frans de Waal, raised hope for new insights: The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates. He made accidentally an interesting point – the reciprocal imago dei (God’s imago modelled after human) of todays … Continue reading
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