Answer to Job

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Answer to Job
Carl Gustav Jung
Original titleAntwort auf Hiob
TranslatorR. F. C. Hull (1973)
LanguageGerman
GenreAnalytical psychology, theology
Published1952
Published in English
1954
Pages169 (1952 ed.)

Answer to Job (

feminine dimension of God
.

The book was first published in English in 1954. It has received both criticism and admiration from commentators. Author Joyce Carol Oates and theologian John Shelby Spong, among others, highlighted it as a major work.

Summary

Jung considers the Book of Job a landmark development in the "divine drama," for the first time contemplating criticism of God (Gotteskritik). Jung described Answer to Job as "pure poison," referring to the controversial nature of the book.[1] He did, however, feel an urge to write the book.

The basic thesis of the book is that, as well as having a good side, God also has a fourth side—the evil face of God. This view is inevitably controversial, but Jung claimed it is backed up by references to the Hebrew Bible. Jung saw this evil side of God as the missing fourth element of the Trinity, which he believed should be supplanted by a Quaternity. However, he also discusses in the book whether the true missing fourth element is the feminine side of God. Indeed, he saw the dogmatic definition of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary by Pope Pius XII in 1950 as being the most significant religious event since the Reformation.

Another theme in the book is the inversion of the biblical assertion that God sent his son Christ to die for the sins of humanity. Jung maintains that upon realizing his mistreatment of Job, God sends his son to humankind to be sacrificed in repentance for God's sins. Jung sees this as a sign of God's ongoing psychological development.

Reception

Author Joyce Carol Oates, in her review "Legendary Jung" (from her collections of essays The Profane Art), considers Answer to Job to be Jung's most important work. The Episcopal Bishop and humanist Christian author John Shelby Spong, in his book Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World (2011), also considers Answer to Job to be Jung's "most profound work."[2]

Jungian scholar Murray Stein claims Jung viewed the Book of Job as an example of a scriptural religious experience:

In Jung’s interpretation, Job is completely innocent. He is a scrupulously pious man who follows all the religious conventions, and for most of his life, he is blessed with good fortune. This is the expected outcome for a just man in a rationally ordered universe. But then God allows Satan to work on him, bringing misfortune and misery. Being overwhelmed with questions and images of divine majesty and power, Job is then silenced. He realizes his inferior position vis-a-vis the Almighty. But he also retains his personal integrity, and this so impresses God that He is forced to take stock of Himself. Perhaps He is not so righteous after all![3]

As Marc Fonda observes, God’s omniscience precludes self-awareness. Being omniscient, God has no concentrated self to speak of. Being a part of everything, God has no opportunity to distinguish self from non-self. However, as God knows the thoughts of humans, through the thoughts of his creation he can experience what self-awareness is.[citation needed] Murray continues:

And out of this astonishing self-reflection, induced in God by Job’s stubborn righteousness, He, the Almighty, is pushed into a process of transformation that leads eventually to His incarnation as Jesus. God develops empathy and love through his confrontation with Job, and out of it a new relationship between God and humankind is born.[3]

Editions

References

  1. ^ Storr, A. 1973. Jung. Fontana Modern Masters Series.
  2. ^ Spong, John Shelby. 2011. Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World. p. 164.
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-691-00697-0
    .

Further reading

External links
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