Man's relation to God probably has to undergo a certain important change: Instead of the propitiating praise to an unpredictable king or the child's prayer to a loving father, the responsible living and fulfilling of the divine will in us will be our form of worship and commerce with God.
His goodness means grace and light and His dark side the terrible temptation of power.
Man has already received so much knowledge that he can destroy his own planet.
Let us hope that God's good spirit will guide him in his decisions, because it will depend upon man's decision whether God's creation will continue.
Nothing shows more drastically than this possibility how much of divine power has come within the reach of man.
-Carl G. Jung, Letter to Elined Kotschnig, 1956
Documentary 'Matter of the Heart' on Carl G. Jung.
2 comments:
Jung's quote reminds me of Oppenheimer's thoughts at the time of the first test of the atomic bomb. He recalled Krishna's words from the Bhagavad Gita: Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
We must look to that strong follower of Jung, Joseph Campbell. As stated in his interview with Bill Moyer, perhaps the most powerful lesson that Jesus has to offer us is that the "Kingdom of God is within us" ie that we should focus less on God as some external force and more on ourselves as manifestations of God, both for ill and for good. We possess untold of powers of destruction, but also of creation, and must come to understand and respect the God within us. We must come to see the universal that is manifested in each of us.
On a similar topic, I would strongly recommend the writings and thoughts of M. Scott Peck, a late psychiatrist. He proposed a four-stage level of spiritual development. Stage One is effectively infantile chaotic aggression. Stage Two is blind obedience in external powers (parents and the traditional God - he notes that most people stop here). Stage Three is skepticism, manifested by scientific inquisition and often atheism. But Stage Four is refinding true religion, the mysticism: seeing and appreciating the grand patterns of existence, and a genuine belief in its mystery and beauty. We must all strive to reach Stage Four (confusingly, this ideally should occur while reaching for a Type One civilization).
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