I am continually surprised that so many people praise Carl Jung's writings, especially his writings on the nature of God. Jung’s “Answer to Job” shows how little this highly-respected man understands God. I wonder how many of his admirers are aware of this. I'm going to criticize his famous
book "Answer to Job," translated by R.F.C. Hull. In this book, Jung tries to provide God's
Answer to Job's question about why Job experienced so much grief. Jung begins God’s answer to Job with a long criticism of God. His first page of text (p. 3) pictures God as knowing no moderation of emotions, and God suffers because of that. God himself admits to being eaten up with rage and jealousy and this knowledge is painful to him. Jung
claims God’s divine darkness is unveiled in the Book of Job."
Later in the book Jung claims that Revelation's four horsemen point out the sinister side of God. All seven seals in Revelation are "a veritable orgy of hatred, wrath, vindictiveness, and blind destructive fury" (p. 125). Jung argues that God is not a fully conscious being (pp. 3 & 33), but rather the
unconscious force behind nature. Jung believes Revelation's visions stem from the collective unconscious of humans, a racial memory of primordial events that all humans sometimes glimpse (p. 134).
Concerning Job, Lucifer made use of God's omniscience. God was omniscient; but, because of God's state of unconsciousness, God did not take advantage of this omniscience. This consciousness of God, to begin with, was not much more than a primitive awareness that knows no reflection and no morality (pp. 67-8). Lucifer took advantage of God, goading God into treating Job unfairly and immorally. Job, for his part, displayed a greater sense of morality than God did. Jung claims Job showed himself superior to God both intellectually and morally (pp. 14 & 68). God then, to expiate this wrongful treatment of Job—and through Job, all humanity—decided to become human and suffer as Job suffered (pp. 85-91).
Jung views the
woman of Revelation 12 (the woman clothed with the sun and standing on the moon) as a pre-Christian, pre‑Yahwist image stemming from human collective unconscious. This image portends the birth of a divine child. Jung identifies the woman as "anima mundi" (earth's soul), a peer of primordial cosmic man. She is in a perennial process of birth that has occurred over and over again throughout history. Briefly stated, this indicates that we are part of God. We are becoming more and more aware of the God that is within us (p. 158) through a birthing of what was in the unconscious bursting forth into our consciousness (p. 163). Jung's main theme is God's repressed hostility due to God's unreflective and amoral interaction with the universe.
The above are some of the main thoughts in "Answer to Job." I am surprised that someone that understands God so poorly is given such a large influence in human psychology. I would not want Jung at my side when I’m on my death bed. Actually, I wouldn’t want Jung influencing me while I’m still young and healthy. He obviously doesn’t have the slightest idea of what the eternal, almighty deity is.
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