Jungian analyst Steven Herrmann has gifted us with vital books on matters reminiscent of Religious Democracy, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Jung and William James, Jung and Swami Vivekananda, Jung and Meister Eckhart, Vocational Desires, and far more.*
Now he kicks off the brand new sequence on Neo-Jungian research with a e book on Murray Stein, subtitled “Individuation, Transformation, and the Methods to the Self in Jungian Psychology.” Stein, an internationally famend Jungian analyst, mixed theology and Jung by means of 50 years of influential work, which has even included playwriting in his later years. After a few years in Chicago, he moved to Zurich 20 years in the past.
As a non secular theologian, I respect Jung’s contributions on many ranges to understanding spiritual consciousness, the latest instance being the place I share his ideas on the antichrist archetype in my latest e book on Trump and the MAGA Motion as Antichrist.
I stay curious how Jung’s work, up to date by Stein and Herrmann, can help the Christian motion because it evolves from the Age of Pisces, the place it has been nestled for 2000 years, to the Age of Aquarius and post-modernism that now beckons us.
Individuation, Transformation, and the Methods to the Self in Jungian Psychology by Steven Herrmann.
Herrmann’s in-depth therapy of Murray Stein’s vital achievements, bringing Jung right into a post-modern mindset, contributes considerably to this evolution. First, there may be the interfaith or deep ecumenical dimension that Stein acknowledges—what he calls a “plural consciousness.” In 2013, as co-president of a convention on world religions in Taiwan, he introduced collectively audio system from Japan, Korea, and China to discover Taoism and Jungian research.
Says Stein: “Jung wanted to have expertise. What’s your expertise of God? This was Jung’s method to faith.” As a non secular theologian, these are my main questions too: “How can we expertise the divine?” And, “How do these of different cultures and religions do the identical?” Stein “unites Japanese and Western non secular traditions,” says Herrmann, bringing “a message of hope, therapeutic, and visionary consciousness to a world viewers.” Interdependence is essential to the longer term.
Stein believes we have now paid a heavy worth for the fashionable period, which promoted a sure “illness” that lower off a connection to the “spiritual perform and to the symbols that deliver the ego right into a extra acutely aware relationship to the Self.” He acknowledges how, in Herrmann’s phrases, “one serves the Self by way of the common-or-garden human automobile of 1’s vocation, whether or not that calling entails marriage, parenthood, science, or artwork.”
Stein has listened to many goals of people that converse to those realities. One captures glimpses of Infinity throughout moments when the Self awakens inside us, evoking a way of thriller and marvel. We enter into this realm every time we open ourselves to transcendence, and these are “not less than probably Christ-like openings into Oneness.” Desires usually information the dreamer “towards individuation by means of a calling to compassion.”
Stein acknowledges our post-modern occasions as being contaminated by a “virus of superficiality.” He warns that “triviality” can infect Jungian institutes and coaching applications:
We dwell in postmodern occasions. The adjustments led to in world tradition…because the introduction of the pc and the web into widespread utilization worldwide, have profoundly affected all cultures, and this has had an influence additionally on our occupation of psychotherapy. All the pieces goes sooner, velocity and effectivity are paramount, and superficiality because the signature of the occasions is a end result…
He’s involved about how the postmodern world has been contaminated with the virus of superficiality.… Maybe now’s the time to pay attention extra intently to the spirit of the depths.**
For me, the “spirit of the depths” means the paranormal traditions of the world, which should come alive, and for the West, this constitutes a paradigm shift in theological schooling and church life, together with Liturgy. In any case, it was Jung himself who stated, “it’s to the mystics we owe what’s finest in humanity” and “solely the mystics deliver what’s artistic to faith itself.”
In different phrases, there will probably be no renewal of faith and spirituality till we perceive the paranormal dimension of ourselves and our traditions extra deeply. Clearly, the Cosmic Christ archetype is on the rise.
I thank Murray Stein and Steven Herrmann for carrying the Jungian genius into a brand new period on this groundbreaking examine.
* To see all of Steven Herrmann’s books, see Matthew Fox’s Creation Spirituality bookstore HERE.
**Steven Herrmann, Murray Stein: Individuation, Transformation, and the Methods to the Self in Jungian Psychology, pp. 23, 13, 36f.
Banner Picture: The Cosmic Mass on the Parliament of World Religions, 2023, with wildlife lanterns sculpted by College of Creation Spirituality graduate Mary Plaster, D.Min. Picture by Mary Plaster, printed with permission.
Queries for Contemplation
Do you acknowledge a “virus of superficiality” in our occasions? Do you expertise a style of the Infinite and a gap to transcendence by means of experiences of thriller and marvel? Do you entertain the mystic in your self and study from mystic-prophets who encourage you?
Associated Readings by Matthew Fox
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Therapeutic of Mom Earth and the Start of a World Renaissance
One River, Many Wells: Knowledge Springing from World Religion Custom
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Prophet For Our Time
Julian of Norwich: Knowledge in a Time of Pandemic—and Past
A Means To God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey
Trump and the MAGA Motion as Antichrist
