He is disappointed by his Reformed church pastor father Paul Jung's academic way of looking at faith...
Jung's mindset on Faith... more commonalities in what I and a few friends are trying to advance our faith.
Jung (1952, 1954)'s Answer to Job "Antwort auf Hiob"
Quotations from the book:
"The Book of Job places this pious and faithful man, so heavily afflicted by the Lord, on a brightly lit stage where presents his case to the eyes and ears of the world. It is amazing to see how easily Yahweh, quite without reason, let himself be influenced by one of his sons, by a doubt-thought, and made unsure of Job's faithfulness. With his touchiness and suspiciousness the mere possibility of doubt was enough to infuriate him and induce that peculiar double-faced behaviour of which he had already given proof in the Garden of Eden when he pointed out the tree to the First Parents and at the same time forbid them to eat of it. In this way he anticipated the Fall which he apparently never intended. Similarly his faithful servant Job is now to be exposed to a rigorous moral test quite gratuitously and to him, and to no purpose , although Yahweh is convinced of Job's faithfulness and constancy and more over have assured himself beyond all doubt a this point had he taken counsel with his own omniscience.
Why, then is the experiment made at all, and a bet with the unscrupulous slanderer settled, without a stake, on the back of a powerless creature? It is indeed no edifying spectacle to see how quickly Yahweh abandons his faithful servant to the evil spirit and lets him fall without compunction or pity into the abyss of physical and moral suffering. From the human point of view Yahweh's behaviour is so revolting and that one has to ask oneself whether there is not a deeper that motive hidden behind it. Has Yahweh some secret resistance against Job? That would explain his yielding to Satan.
But what does man possess that God does not have? Because of his littleness, puniness, and defencelessness against the Almighty, he possesses, as we have already suggested, a somewhat keener consciousness based on self-reflection: he must, in order to survive, always be mindful of his impotence. God has no need of this circumspection, for nowhere does he come up against an insuperable obstacle that would force him to hesitate and hence make him reflect on himself.
Could a suspicion have grown up in God that man possesses an infinitely small yet more concentrated light than Yahweh, possesses? A jealousy of that kind might perhaps explain his behaviour. It would be quite explicable if some such dim, barely understood deviation from the definition of a mere "creature" had aroused his divine suspicions.
Too often already -these human beings had not behaved in the prescribed manner. Even his trusty servant Job might have something up his sleeve. . . . Hence Yahweh's surprising readiness to listen to Satan's insinuations against his better judgment.
Without further ado Job is robbed of his herds, his servants are slaughtered, his sons and daughters are killed by whirlwind, and he himself is smitten with sickness and ought to the brink of the grave. To rob him of peace together, his wife and his old friends are let loose against m, all of whom say the wrong things. His justified complaint finds no hearing with the judge who is so much raised for his justice. Job's right is refused in order that Satan be not disturbed in his play.
One must bear in mind here the dark deeds that follow one another in quick succession: robbery, murder, bodily injury with premeditation, and denial of a fair trial. This is further exacerbated by the fact that Yahweh displays no compunction, remorse, or compassion, but only ruthlessness and brutality. The plea of unconsciousness is invalid, seeing at he flagrantly violates at least three of the commandments he himself gave out on Mount Sinai.
Job's friends do everything in their power to contribute his moral torments, and instead of giving him, whom God has perfidiously abandoned, their warm-hearted support, they moralize in an all too human manner, that is, in the stupidest fashion imaginable, and "fill him with inkles." They thus' deny him even the last comfort of sympathetic participation and human understanding, so at one cannot altogether suppress the suspicion of connivance in high places.
Why Job's torments and the divine wager should suddenly come to an end is not quite clear. So long as Job does not actually die, the pointless suffering could be continued indefinitely. We must, however, keep an eye on the background of all these events: it is just possible that something in this background will gradually begin to take shape a compensation for Job's undeserved suffering-something to which Yahweh, even if he had only a faint inkling of it, could hardly remain indifferent. Without Yahweh's knowledge and contrary to his intentions, the tormented
though guiltless Job had secretly been lifted up to a superior knowledge of God which God himself did not possess. Had Yahweh consulted his omniscience, Job would not have had the advantage of him. But then, so many other,things would not have happened either.
Job realizes God's inner antinomy, and in the light of this to realization his knowledge attains a divine numinosity. The possibility of this development lies, one must suppose, in man's "godlikeness," which one should certainly not look is for in human morphology. Yahweh himself had guarded against this error by expressly forbidding the making of images. Job, by his insistence on bringing his case before God, even without hope of, a hearing, had stood his ground and thus created the very obstacle that forced God to re-veal his true nature. With this dramatic climax Yahweh abruptly breaks off his cruel game of cat and mouse.
But if anyone should expect that his wrath will now be turned against the slanderer, he will be severely disappointed. Yahweh does not think of bringing this mischief-making son of his to account, nor does it ever occur to him to give Job at least the moral satisfaction of explaining his behaviour.
Instead, he comes riding along on the tempest of his almightiness and thunders reproaches at the half-crushed human worm:
Who is this that darkens counsel
by words without insight
In view of the subsequent words of Yahweh, one must really ask oneself: Who is darkening what counsel? The only, dark thing here is how Yahweh ever came to make a bet with Satan. It is certainly not Job who has darkened, anything and least of all a counsel, for there was never any' talk of this nor will there be in what follows. The bet does not contain any "counsel' so far as one can see-unless, of course, it was Yahweh himself who egged Satan on Job 38 2 (ZB)."
Labels: Answer to Job, Jung
