Nice post, LP. I agree with you that whether Jesus actually existed or not, and whether he lived as told in the Gospels or not, matters less than the fact (ala Jung) that the conveyed stories about him clearly spoke to humanity's deep inner needs, which is what gave it the strength to survive, grow, and expand into the present era.
Personally, I also look at it astrologically: the Age of Pisces with the two fish symbolism, where the beginning of the age begins with Christ and the end of the age ends with the anti-Christ. As each age is ~2,000 years, and with the rapidly emerging CBDC Mark of the Beast approaching the latter doesn't feel far off. As noted gnostic Stephan Hoeller stated in an interview:
"One of the principal disclosures to be found in this work is Jung’s belief that the Age of Aquarius is upon us, that significant changes in the consciousness of humanity are taking place, and that more of the same may be expected in the future. The “Aeon of Aquarius,” as Jung calls it, will eventually bring great psychological changes in its wake, amounting to a new religious consciousness which will differ greatly from the religious consciousness of the Piscean Age. It will manifest primarily in a new God-image that was very important to the ancient Gnostics and that in various ways has made its appearance throughout history in the esoteric tradition.
Two thousand and some years ago a new religion constellated itself in the Mediterranean region. With that religion came a new myth of redemption, centred in the image of Jesus, the Saviour God. Now Jung is telling us in The Red Book that the Aeon of Aquarius is upon us, and with it comes the new God-image of the God within. This image is of course none other than the God to whom St. Paul referred as “the Christ in you, our hope of glory.” It is also the indwelling Christ affirmed and venerated in the Gnostic tradition.
There is no doubt that Jung saw in the new Gnostic Renaissance, which began with the discovery in 1945 of the Nag Hammadi library, a manifestation of his own prophecy in the then still secret Red Book. The connection of Jung’s prophecy with the tradition of Gnosis is unmistakable.
In his Red Book, Jung stated clearly that the task of the present and near future was “to give birth to the ancient in a new time,” and he clearly meant the Gnostic tradition is in fact that ancient thing to which he and others were giving birth.
I have spent a very large portion of my adult life studying and commenting upon the work of Jung and the Gnostic sacred writings. I should say, then, that humanity today is experiencing the rebirth of Gnosticism, and its principal God-image is being born in a new time. The esoteric as well as the exoteric implications of this process are momentous."
There's a section in Gadamer's _Truth and Method_ where he dives into the Christian dogma of the Incarnation. I read this years ago and I'm not going to dig out the book now, so this is fragmented and probably wrong, but here goes.
My recollection is that Gadamer marked the Incarnation as the moment when the eternal Logos blended with Time, and Myth entered into History.
Gadamer was using this as a figure and metaphor for the union of transcendent form/sense with concrete signs and symbols expressing them, in the context of remarks on language.
Even so, it was the first time I'd come across the point put this way: that Christianity was singular and unique in world history in so fusing the Unseen with the phenomenal world, in the person of Jesus Christ. Even the other so-called "Abrahamic" faiths do not make this move or anything like it.
The story of Christ is the re-enactment of the age-old tale of the dying god, dismembered and sent to the underworld to return reborn? Of course. It's myth coming to life in history, completing the cycle. As you wrote, it scarcely matters if the real historical man existed as the Gospels record.
Later on, discovering that Lewis and Tolkien (and I'm sure plenty of others) had followed similar paths, these ideas drew me back to (like you, a heretical form of) Christian teaching and faith.
Yes, the more we dig into the texts and the history, the more obvious that the texts have been meddled with, with some outright frauds, like the book of Daniel. I have come to appreciate your last point ever more strongly: what a Holy Spirit miracle that the message was preserved and conveyed to the extent that it has been, given the murkiness and muddle of the texts. But as you say, it is not just a 'text'. It is the Spirit inhabiting matter, including us (and the Church is the faulty vehicle entrusted to carry that Spirit-message forward).
I do take issue with your somewhat Albigensian/Cathar heresy that Jesus is simply the message of the Spirit (therefore it doesn't matter if he actually existed, and matter doesn't really matter at all). Yes, Jesus does say "my kingdom is not of this world" (if we can trust this bit of text), but this doesn't mean we will all float off into a 'spirit world' to commune (in spirit only) with the divine God/Jesus spirit. No. The Christian idea is firmly that matter is imbued with Spirit. We are imbued with Spirit. God expresses God's self through matter (and us, if we co-operate). Matter matters, and the ultimate demonstration of this is God become matter in the form of Jesus, and of course the final act, in which all of creation (matter!) is renewed through a final unification of Spirit and matter (or if you like, in Jesus' favourite analogy, the bride meets the bridegroom - a very physical analogy!)
I do not recall “In the beginning there was a Book”. Ha ha.
I was pondering on the “existence” of Jesus the other day. The notion of “existence” of God is, supposedly a recent phenomenon. Trust in God used to mean trusting another person.
The non-existence of Jesus can be compared to the existence of COVID-19. One way or another, people who believed in Jesus build a civilization and made up knowledge that we call scientific as it emerged based on propositions that affirmed the “existence” of God/Jesus and the world governed by laws of God. The very existence of scientific truth rests on the concept God is Truth.
Yet real world observation shows that God is Truth for few people means keeping covenant with God, which equates to how one acts. If you fall sick and I show up to care for you, God is Truth. There is nothing abstract or unbelievable in it. We are healed this way. What comes out as the result of it is unknown. Seems simple.
Nice post, LP. I agree with you that whether Jesus actually existed or not, and whether he lived as told in the Gospels or not, matters less than the fact (ala Jung) that the conveyed stories about him clearly spoke to humanity's deep inner needs, which is what gave it the strength to survive, grow, and expand into the present era.
Personally, I also look at it astrologically: the Age of Pisces with the two fish symbolism, where the beginning of the age begins with Christ and the end of the age ends with the anti-Christ. As each age is ~2,000 years, and with the rapidly emerging CBDC Mark of the Beast approaching the latter doesn't feel far off. As noted gnostic Stephan Hoeller stated in an interview:
"One of the principal disclosures to be found in this work is Jung’s belief that the Age of Aquarius is upon us, that significant changes in the consciousness of humanity are taking place, and that more of the same may be expected in the future. The “Aeon of Aquarius,” as Jung calls it, will eventually bring great psychological changes in its wake, amounting to a new religious consciousness which will differ greatly from the religious consciousness of the Piscean Age. It will manifest primarily in a new God-image that was very important to the ancient Gnostics and that in various ways has made its appearance throughout history in the esoteric tradition.
Two thousand and some years ago a new religion constellated itself in the Mediterranean region. With that religion came a new myth of redemption, centred in the image of Jesus, the Saviour God. Now Jung is telling us in The Red Book that the Aeon of Aquarius is upon us, and with it comes the new God-image of the God within. This image is of course none other than the God to whom St. Paul referred as “the Christ in you, our hope of glory.” It is also the indwelling Christ affirmed and venerated in the Gnostic tradition.
There is no doubt that Jung saw in the new Gnostic Renaissance, which began with the discovery in 1945 of the Nag Hammadi library, a manifestation of his own prophecy in the then still secret Red Book. The connection of Jung’s prophecy with the tradition of Gnosis is unmistakable.
In his Red Book, Jung stated clearly that the task of the present and near future was “to give birth to the ancient in a new time,” and he clearly meant the Gnostic tradition is in fact that ancient thing to which he and others were giving birth.
I have spent a very large portion of my adult life studying and commenting upon the work of Jung and the Gnostic sacred writings. I should say, then, that humanity today is experiencing the rebirth of Gnosticism, and its principal God-image is being born in a new time. The esoteric as well as the exoteric implications of this process are momentous."
Happy Easter.
Beautiful essay on this Easter Day, thank you!
The Logos was made flesh and dwelt among us
There's a section in Gadamer's _Truth and Method_ where he dives into the Christian dogma of the Incarnation. I read this years ago and I'm not going to dig out the book now, so this is fragmented and probably wrong, but here goes.
My recollection is that Gadamer marked the Incarnation as the moment when the eternal Logos blended with Time, and Myth entered into History.
Gadamer was using this as a figure and metaphor for the union of transcendent form/sense with concrete signs and symbols expressing them, in the context of remarks on language.
Even so, it was the first time I'd come across the point put this way: that Christianity was singular and unique in world history in so fusing the Unseen with the phenomenal world, in the person of Jesus Christ. Even the other so-called "Abrahamic" faiths do not make this move or anything like it.
The story of Christ is the re-enactment of the age-old tale of the dying god, dismembered and sent to the underworld to return reborn? Of course. It's myth coming to life in history, completing the cycle. As you wrote, it scarcely matters if the real historical man existed as the Gospels record.
Later on, discovering that Lewis and Tolkien (and I'm sure plenty of others) had followed similar paths, these ideas drew me back to (like you, a heretical form of) Christian teaching and faith.
Fascinating stuff.
Yes, the more we dig into the texts and the history, the more obvious that the texts have been meddled with, with some outright frauds, like the book of Daniel. I have come to appreciate your last point ever more strongly: what a Holy Spirit miracle that the message was preserved and conveyed to the extent that it has been, given the murkiness and muddle of the texts. But as you say, it is not just a 'text'. It is the Spirit inhabiting matter, including us (and the Church is the faulty vehicle entrusted to carry that Spirit-message forward).
I do take issue with your somewhat Albigensian/Cathar heresy that Jesus is simply the message of the Spirit (therefore it doesn't matter if he actually existed, and matter doesn't really matter at all). Yes, Jesus does say "my kingdom is not of this world" (if we can trust this bit of text), but this doesn't mean we will all float off into a 'spirit world' to commune (in spirit only) with the divine God/Jesus spirit. No. The Christian idea is firmly that matter is imbued with Spirit. We are imbued with Spirit. God expresses God's self through matter (and us, if we co-operate). Matter matters, and the ultimate demonstration of this is God become matter in the form of Jesus, and of course the final act, in which all of creation (matter!) is renewed through a final unification of Spirit and matter (or if you like, in Jesus' favourite analogy, the bride meets the bridegroom - a very physical analogy!)
Happy Easter, indeed, to those that dare to seek the Kingdom of Heaven 👀
He is risen indeed! Thanks for the essay!
He is Risen indeed!
I do not recall “In the beginning there was a Book”. Ha ha.
I was pondering on the “existence” of Jesus the other day. The notion of “existence” of God is, supposedly a recent phenomenon. Trust in God used to mean trusting another person.
The non-existence of Jesus can be compared to the existence of COVID-19. One way or another, people who believed in Jesus build a civilization and made up knowledge that we call scientific as it emerged based on propositions that affirmed the “existence” of God/Jesus and the world governed by laws of God. The very existence of scientific truth rests on the concept God is Truth.
Yet real world observation shows that God is Truth for few people means keeping covenant with God, which equates to how one acts. If you fall sick and I show up to care for you, God is Truth. There is nothing abstract or unbelievable in it. We are healed this way. What comes out as the result of it is unknown. Seems simple.