Like Jacob and the Angel: Jung’s Confrontation with Christianity

Jung, son of a Swiss pastor, wrestled all his life with religion and particularly with Christianity. He was convinced that humans are by nature religious, and that the issue of developing a solid religious attitude lay at the heart of psychological problems and growth, especially in the second half of life. He also believed that the psyche continually produces symbols for the otherwise unknowable mystery, and that such symbols have become the focus of religious life and the source of great energy for peoples throughout history. These symbols are not “invented” by human thought, nor are they (in Jung’s view) reducible to images derived from nature or designed to compensate for human frailties and fears. They arise from the autonomous workings of the collective psyche, similar symbols often emerging in very different cultures or periods of time. Not uncommonly they become transmuted into systems of doctrine and worship and into religious institutions, within which the archetypal symbols may retain-or may lose-their original psychic power, and they may or may not serve as carriers of deep religious experience for future generations.