“To reach maturation, in a Jungian context, it
is necessary for a man first to work through his shadow—the negative/evil
aspects of chthonic and solar phallos. He then must deal with his inner
femininity and its requirements for relatedness. Hidden behind these two
enormous psychological tasks is the possibility of wisdom, the knowledge and
stature that come only with age and long self reflection.”
~Eugene Monick
Grappling with non-Christian
content in the development of personality is a challenging reality for the
committed Christian. However, I have no doubt that God has called me to
integrate other models of
truth in order to augment the process of discipleship. A guarded openness has
wisdom about it. I wonder if the Bible might never more eloquently described ‘the
what’, whereas many other sources of literature and collective wisdom can help
with ‘the how’ of achieving the completeness of personality—to become more
Christlike. (Of course, the Bible also covers ‘the how’ of spirituality as
well.)
Let us first explore this term, the
completeness of personality.
A Vision of What Could Be
Self-actualisation is what the
secularists call it. Discipleship is what Christians call it. These are the
same processes, all be it for different outcomes. On the one hand, secular life
calls the person, if they are so interested, to actualise themselves—to become all they can foreseeably be. On the other
hand, the Christian is called to pick up their cross and follow Jesus. The Lord,
alone, specifies the process of discipleship—through prayer, mentoring, learning,
character development, and other spiritual disciplines, etc.
But surely we are talking about
the same thing.
It all depends on our goal; it all depends who we do it for; it all
depends on what the endgame is. For Christians, the answer to these three is
simple: Christ.
The completeness of personality
must be realised in wisdom—the prize awaiting all who would venture on Tremulous Road.
Being a process that is never
fully realised, but one never more surely blessed, we go on and on into the
development of the soul—mentally, emotionally, spiritually.
A Christian Grappling with the Jungian
Context
Truth is truth and all of it is
God’s. Truth and wisdom are interdependent. There is wisdom in Jungian
psychology and philosophy. It can be used to enhance the process of
discipleship. Eugene Monick’s quote, above, speaks from this philosophy. It
speaks primarily to men, but women, equally, can draw insight as well.
A broad, and perhaps crude,
summary:
We have two tasks to complete in
approaching wisdom from our wounded selves. The first is to appreciate the evil
in two flesh-propensities we have:
1) Solar Phallos: the desire is to magnify our best, most godly, attributes. But this is
often over-achieved and we sin in pride; e.g. ambition for success, the
elevation of personal power structures, etc.
2) Chthonic Phallos: the desire is to minimise our worst, darkest evils. For example, for men,
it is suppressing erotic desire—some of which we are ashamed of.
Completing the first task is about
letting go of the solar; giving up our neediness to want to be seen as gods. It
is secondarily about coming to understand and accept that our darkest thoughts
and visions come from within. Rather than suppress these, our challenge is to
incorporate grace, not deal in judgment. We find ourselves having shameful
thoughts—these are to be rejected, but not before we acknowledge God’s grace in
knowing we are sinners; we are forgiven for such thoughts.
We do not venture with the devil
into condemnation. We can agree with the devil in regard to our sinfulness—and,
if we cannot be condemned, we render evil power useless. Without God we are
hopeless sinners. It is power to know this. This highlights the magnificence of
God’s grace never more.
It is overall about coming to a
real acceptance of our innate sinfulness—acknowledging and accepting, in
Jungian speak, the ongoing presence of ‘shadow’ in our psyches.
None of this first task goes
against the process of discipleship. Indeed, it can be seen as picking up one’s
cross and following Jesus.
The second task goes against the
grain of many men, but strangely it may be easier for homosexual men. We are to
embrace our inner femininity. Just as women have masculine (harder) components
within their personalities, men too have soft parts within theirs. The key test
may be can a man be comfortable within all facets of his sexuality? Can a man
be comfortable, also, in simple relatedness—with both himself and others?
Both of these tasks are difficult;
they will take us, in some degree, the passage of our lifetimes. Once we accept
these tasks the gates of wisdom are opened. And all this is achieved through
the processes of age and long self-reflection.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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