What Is Religion?
Author: Bonnie McCarson
Published on: October 14, 2002
From: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/jungian_psychology/95713
In earlier articles I
have discussed archetypal forms or images that appear in art or
literature
for the arts are a means of expressing what is happening at the
deepest levels of our psyches. However, when I explore the arts
seeking signs
of archetypal meaning, I inevitably wind up at what could be called
the great religious questions of mankind. Man has been a religious
being as far back into prehistory as scholars can postulate. Jung
devoted a chapter in his Psychology and Religion to what he believed
to be "the facts which bear out the existence of an authentic
religious function in the unconscious mind." (Jung 3)
Before going further, let us clarify what we mean by the word "religion." In
modern culture we often begin to consider the many systems that
have developed over time to serve the religious function. The root
word in Latin, however, has nothing to do with organizations and
systems; those are the structures which have developed from some
religious experience and which often as not lose the true meaning
of the word religion in becoming too concretized and rigid. The
Latin word "religare," from which "religion" is
derived, simply means "to bind back." Thus, the religious
function in the truest sense of the word is that which binds us
back to the original wholeness from which we came. As we develop
an ego and become concerned about survival and our place in the
material world, we tend to grow further out of touch with the archetypal
realm that binds us back to the original wholeness. To use a religious
metaphor, we are cast out of the Garden of Eden (original wholeness).
Consciousness and free will separate us from that innocence and
at the same time cut us off from part of ourselves. The religious
function exists as a medium for binding our conscious selves back
to that original wholeness.
When Jung discusses religion, he makes it clear that what he means
by the word "is a careful and scrupulous observation of what
Rudolf Otto aptly termed the 'numinosum,' that is, a dynamic existence
or effect not caused by an arbitrary act of will." He goes
on to say, "The numinosum is either a quality of a visible
object or the influence of an invisible presence causing a peculiar
alteration of consciousness." (Jung 4) This is where the archetypal
realm comes into play to give meaning to something which otherwise
might be meaningless. It is the experience of the numinous, the
encounter with the archetype, which reconnects us to the original
wholeness. Thus, religion is not a set of dogma nor a structure
or organization.
Our world at present is visited almost daily by violence that
claims to have as its cause religion. I conjecture that anyone
who says this violence is an outgrowth of religion has totally
lost connection with the "numinosum" and has substituted
for it the maniacal schemes of some would-be demi-god whose true
aim is power. Let us call our current world problems what they
are - rages of the have-nots and the haves. Again, to use a religious
metaphor, it is more like the Cain's jealousy of Abel, and violence
moves us further from connection to the original wholeness, rather
than closer to it. The greatest religious element in the current
world affairs may be that the atrocities being done in the name
of religion might shock us into searching for what religion truly
is, thereby opening a door for the numinosum to reconnect us. Perhaps
our planet is having to suffer what some have called the dark night
of the soul in order to move toward integration.
Note: It is my rather ambitious aim to continue to explore the
religious function from a Jungian perspective and to include works
of literature which reflect it.
References and Suggestions for Further Reading:
Hoeller, Stephan A. Jung and the Lost Gospels. Wheaton, Illinois:
The Theosophical Publishing House, 1989
Jung, C.G. Psychology and Religion. New Haven, Connecticutt: Yale
University Press, 1938
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