C. G. Jung and Hans Urs von Balthasar: God and evil - A critical comparison

233 Pages·2013·5.917 MB·English

by  Les Oglesby

C. G. Jung and Hans Urs von Balthasar

This book brings together the work of Carl Gustav Jung and Hans Urs von
Balthasar, two of the most creative thinkers in psychology and theology in the
twentieth century, to critically compare their ideas on the perennial question
of God’s involvement with evil.
In later life Jung embarked on a project relating to Christianity, with psycho-
therapeutic and theological intentions, forming his collection of essays, Symbolik
des Geistes, in which God and evil was a major theme. Balthasar gave significant
attention to Jung’s psychology in his own theological trilogy, but opposed the
approach to God and evil that Jung presented.
In this book Les Oglesby provides a thorough examination of convergences
and divergences in Jung and Balthasar’s thinking, their different approaches to
the origins and reality of evil, and their alternative theological orientations. The
book culminates in a study of each man’s understanding of the central event of
Christianity, Christ’s death on the Cross and his descent to the dead, and dis-
cusses how Balthasar’s ‘vertical’ and Jung’s ‘horizontal’ approach to this major
happening can be held together fruitfully with one another.
Illustrating how analytical psychology and Christian theology can mutually
enrich one another when they are held in creative tension, this book invites
reflection on the meaning of the central symbol of Christianity and God’s
involvement with evil as an aid to integrated psychological living and theological
maturity. It will prove fascinating for students of psychology and religion as well
as for Jungian analysts and practical theologians.
Les Oglesby was Director of Ministry in the Diocese of Ely, and has now
retired. He gained his Lambeth PhD in Psychology and Theology in 2012.
Research in Analytical Psychology and Jungian Studies Series
Series Advisor: Andrew Samuels, Professor of Analytical Psychology,
Essex University, UK.
The Research in Analytical Psychology and Jungian Studies series features scholarly
works that are, broadly speaking, of an empirical nature. The series comprises
research-focused volumes involving qualitative and quantitative research, historical/
archival research, theoretical developments, heuristic research, grounded theory,
narrative approaches, collaborative research, practitioner-led research, and self-study.
The series also includes focused works by clinical practitioners, and provides new
research-informed explorations of the work of C. G. Jung that will appeal to
researchers, academics and scholars alike.
Books in this series:
Time and Timelessness
Temporality in the theory of Carl Jung
Angeliki Yiassemides
Apophatic Elements in the Theory and Practice of Psychoanalysis
Pseudo-Dionysius and C. G. Jung
David Henderson
C. G. Jung and Hans Urs von Balthasar
God and evil – A critical comparison
Les Oglesby
C. G. Jung and Hans Urs von
Balthasar
God and evil – A critical comparison
Les Oglesby
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2014
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2014 L. Oglesby
The right of L. Oglesby to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Oglesby, Les.
C. G. Jung and Hans Urs von Balthasar: God and evil—a critical
comparison / Les Oglesby.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), 1875–1961. 2. Balthasar, Hans Urs von, 1905–1988.
3. Good and evil—Psychological aspects. 4. Good and evil—Religious
aspects—Christianity. I. Title.
BJ1401O45 2014
214—dc23
2013018314
ISBN: 978-0-415-87057-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-79667-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Book Now Ltd, London
For Dorothy
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Contents

Foreword ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xii
Abbreviations xiii
1 Introduction 1
PART I
Constructing a framework for critical comparison 3
2 Introducing Jung and Balthasar 5
3 A framework for critical comparison 32
PART II
Bases for critical comparison 57
4 Anthropology and theological orientation 59
5 Analogy and polarity 76
PART III
God’s involvement with evil 101
6 Evil – its origins and reality 103
7 Jung on God’s involvement with evil 127
8 The Cross in Jung and Balthasar 144
viii Contents
PART IV
Conclusion 173
9 A cruciform model for God’s involvement with evil 175
10 Summary 195
Bibliography 199
Index 210
Foreword

It is a pleasure to accept Les Oglesby’s invitation to write a brief Foreword for
his book, C. G. Jung and Hans Urs von Balthasar: God and evil – A critical
comparison. It is always gratifying to learn that one’s own work has stimulated
others and planted a seed for further developments in a chosen field of enquiry,
but in this case it is more than that, because Les Oglesby’s work far exceeds
one’s modest hopes in this regard. His is a work of extraordinary intellectual
rigour and broad scholarship. Much more than that, however, it takes up what
is, in my mind, the most pressing issue for contemporary Christian theology
and Jungian psychology alike: the problem of evil.
For theology, this has to do with how to move forward in theological reflec-
tion after the Holocaust; for Jungian psychology, it is how to deal with collective
shadow and to treat traumas caused by man and nature. On the one side, God
must be considered and in some fashion be held accountable; on the other side,
the human psyche must be recognized not only as a source of wisdom and
creativity but also as capable of generating evil on a scale impossible to accept.
Both sides have a problem here, but can they help each other?
Les Oglesby meticulously lays the groundwork for how Christian theology,
as represented by the Swiss Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, might
enter into a constructive dialogue with the depth psychology of Swiss psycho-
analyst C. G. Jung regarding the problem of evil. In a sense, this work is a
prolegomenon for further constructive work to come. It lays the foundations
for a bridge, and in the process it clears away a great many inhibiting miscon-
ceptions and misinterpretations on both sides of the gap between theology and
psychology, which in the past have hindered construction of the much-desired
exchange. This also requires setting solidly in place the positions on either side
of the divide, theological presuppositions on the one side and psychological
ones on the other.
One of Les Oglesby’s great virtues is that he shows precise understanding of
both sides and is even-handed and without prejudice with regard to both. The
position of Balthasar as what he terms a ‘contextualizing theologian’ is shown
to be open to consideration of extra-theological reflections and modern scien-
tific views while retaining theological integrity within the purview of Roman