is the title of a book by C.G. Jung of which he said in writing it he felt himself the instrument of a higher power: “If there is anything like the spirit seizing one by the scruff of the neck, it is the way this book came into being.” This points to the fact that this book has a universal message and contains religious innovation as momentous as the Ten Commandments and far ahead of the time it was conceived. And neither Christianity or Judaism has yet been willing to fully accept it.
Now what makes me take up this book right now and what does it have to say me at this time? The book was first published in 1952. It became part of volume 11 of Jung’s Collected Works in all translations..
“It came upon me suddenly and unexpectedly” C.G.Jung said shortly after its publication, during a severe feverish illness. Whether it caused the illness, was released by it, or cured it is unclear.
Even though the book may have had a sudden birth, its gestation period in Jung’s unconscious was long. The subject of God and what Jung saw as the dark side of God, was a lifelong preoccupation. This book, “Answer to Job” culminated after a lifelong quest into the unconscious, written when he was seventy-six.
In writing this book the feeling dimension erupted in Jung and he wrestled with God as did Job and even Christ himself, both wondering why God had forsaken them. The theme is the suffering of the just and innocent.
For nonreligious people, the book of Job can be read as not only about the just and religious faithful, but about the sufferings of the innocent, regardless of religious persuasion.
In theological language, this is referred to as the “theodicy problem” which has plagued the wise men, the philosophers of antiquity and still plagues the churchmen of today.
It seems impossible to believe that a good, loving Father God could expose his children to fear, evil or suffering. And wasn’t the central message of the Gospel the revelation that God is Love? But then, why is there still so much suffering and evil around in the world. And why do bad things befall good people?
And it is in “Answer to Job” that C.G. Jung searches deep into the human soul, human unconscious to investigate the symbolic role that the theological concept of good and evil , wisdom, God and Christ and Mary play in the work of the unconscious.
As Jung demonstrated and recommended to those who could stand it, one must meet the numinosum head-on and see what it has to say and whether one can integrate it. The ego thus makes a settlement with the Self, or, in non-Jungian terms, the individual with God.
“Answer to Job” has gripped my attention for a long time, and I think it has also to do with the fact, that I was once victim to an outrageous act of violence, where I had an out of body experience and heard a cry within my soul: My God why hat thou forsaken me! And whoever has had a similar experience knows deep in their heart that what the drama of Job and God is about is a question man has tried to come to terms with from the beginning of time.
end of part 1