In Reply to: Let's hear more posted by AG on February 25, 2004 at 08:04:55:
Its kind of hard to discuss Jung's Answer to Job unless one has read it. It is pretty deep. Following is something I wrote. I'm warning you its pretty long and I doubt anyone will bother reading it but here goes. Farmer - don't even bother, you'll hate it.
The story of Job begins with a description of Job, his family, his possessions and his piety. The story then shifts to the heavenly court where God is discussing Job’s goodness with a member of the heavenly court, the satan. God says
Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? (Job 1:8)
In discussing Job’s righteousness, The satan suggests that Job is in it for himself:
Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. (Job 1:9-11)
God accepts the bet from the satan and allows him to take away all that Job has; his house, his children, his servants, his animals - but still Job remains faithful and optimistic:
Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. (Job 1:21)
The story then takes us back to the heavenly court, where God asks the satan the same question as before. The satan replies:
Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. (Job 2:4,5)
So God allows the satan to smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. (Job 2:7) Job curses the day he was born but not his God. It is in this state that we find Job listening to the advice of his friends and refusing to admit that he is guilty of some unknown sin. Job defends himself and challenges God to find him guilty of any sin. Finally God answers Job out of a ‘whirlwind’, Job accepts God’s omniscience and we are left to ponder the purpose of the whole exercise.
The book of Job, as a whole, attempts to answer a major problem in the theology of the Jewish people - that is, the problem of evil and suffering. Historically, the God of the Israelite people dealt out a very systematic form of justice - the traditional deuteronomic doctrine wherein the wicked were punished and the righteous prospered. A good man could expect to prosper, knowing that evildoers would also get their just reward. However, this did not explain the enormous suffering that fell on the just and the unjust, seemingly without reason. This problem of reconciling evil and divine justice became known as theodicy. The word ‘theodicy,’ was coined by the German philosopher Leibniz (1646-1716) and is composed of two Greek words, theos (God) and dike (‘justice, righteousness’), and attempts to give a rational explanation of the justice of God in allowing evil to exist in a world under divine control. Generally, scholars agree that the book of Job is best understood from a post-exilic perspective when both the Jewish people and nation were confronted with the tragic predicament of suffering. Although the prologue and the epilogue sections of Job were probably already a part of Israel’s cultural history prior to their use in Job, they are used for the framework of the poetic section in the middle. David Freedman reminds us that, although dating the different sections of Job is difficult, we must remember that this is not an accidental assemblage of disparate materials. Whatever the origin of the several parts, they have been worked into a whole. It is as legitimate to deal with the whole as to analyse the parts separately and in detail. The author of Job, as it appears in the canon, obviously wanted to base his story on a man whose legendary righteousness was well known in antiquity. Although the poetry of Job may be an attempt to answer the condition of the Jewish people in exile, it clearly deals with a human condition that cannot be confined to any particular time. It has universal relevance regardless of one’s religion or social background. Job is everyman. The inclusion of the book of Job in the Hebrew canon is evidence itself of an attempt to answer questions regarding human suffering. Whether or not that answer is satisfactory is another question.
Maybe another more subtle answer is evident in the poetry itself. Tennyson said that the book of Job was the ‘greatest poetic work of ancient and modern times’. What makes it so? In order to extract the beautiful perfume from a flower, the delicate petals must be crushed. One could say that the suffering of Job is an example of this process. Only by way of Job’s intense pain and suffering was this beautiful poetry extracted. Only through suffering can we experience real beauty, truth and compassion. It could be said that suffering is a catalyst in the transformation process that leads to beauty and compassion as a way of life for the individual.
Although Job’s friends tell him that his suffering is the result of some sin, Job insists that he has not sinned and the cause of his suffering must lie elsewhere. Could suffering also lead to enlightenment? There is evidence that Job understood God in a different way following his experience of innocent suffering.
I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. (Job 42:5)
Although God did not answer Job’s petition, Job seemed to be satisfied with the Almighty’s response. Job understood God in a more personal way after his experience of suffering. Job experienced a transformation of his faith and his understanding of the nature of God. One suggestion is that through man’s suffering God becomes more compassionate.
However, once again, we are faced with more questions. How could a God who is loving, just and merciful be so seemingly disinterested in Job’s pain? If God is all knowing, why did he accept the wager in the first place? Didn’t he know what the outcome would be? It must have been that God did not know whether Job would remain faithful or not. Presuming God is all knowing how could this be? Did Job’s confrontation with God change God’s nature? Carl Jung’s commentary on the Book of Job offers some interesting answers to these questions. According to Jung’s interpretation of Job, because of Job’s suffering, God must go through a transformation, a reconciling of the opposites in his nature. Had God taken counsel with his own omniscience he would not have been influenced by the doubting satan. Jung asks the question, “what does man possess that Yahweh does not”. He suggests that man possesses a keener consciousness based on self-reflection. He must, in order to survive, always be aware of his impotence. God has no need to do this, as he has never come up against a force that would cause him to hesitate and hence make him reflect on himself. 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 reveal his true nature. Jung suggests that Job is no more than the outward occasion for an inward process of dialectic in God. According to Jung:
The unconscious mind of man sees correctly even when conscious reason is blind and impotent. The drama has been consummated for all eternity: Yahweh’s dual nature has been revealed, and somebody or something has seen and registered this fact. Such a revelation, whether it reached man’s consciousness or not, could not fail to have far-reaching consequences.
According to Jung, the experience of the God image or the archetype of the self is the most vital and overwhelming experience that can happen to man. In the face of the power of God Job concedes and admits that God cannot be judged by human standards. The archetype of the God-image has been transformed. God has come up against a man who stands firm, who clings to his rights until he is compelled to give way to brute force It is unrealistic to believe that if whole (in this case, the nature of God) is made up of opposites, a man must experience suffering as well as happiness. Job has seen God’s face and the unconscious split in his nature. God was now known, and this knowledge went on working not only in Yahweh but in man too. Jung viewed the figure of the Christ as the incarnation of God, as the culmination of the Job drama. God desires to regenerate himself and become a man. It is obvious that Job is morally superior to him, so God must regenerate himself and become human. Although these issues may not be directly related to the question of suffering, it expands the context that we view the book of Job. Jung’s commentary could lead us to the conclusion that human suffering was necessary for the evolution of the consciousness of God and man, which in his view were inextricably linked.
There is evidence to support the theory that the book of Job attempts to answer the question of why the innocent suffer but it also raises more questions. Does suffering have to make sense? Do we as humans have the right to question God at all?
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9)
Answers to fundamental questions such as those concerning human suffering are not definitive. They can only be viewed in different contexts. One thing about answers is that they always lead to more questions. The book of Job provides answers concerning human suffering but in doing so raises questions which are even more fundamental to the Christian and Jewish religions, such as, the nature of God.
REFERENCES
Primary Source
The Holy Bible. King James version. Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Secondary Sources
Anderson, B.W. The Living World of the Old Testament. Fourth Edition. Longman. London. 1988.
Flanders, H.J. People of the Covenant. Fourth Edition. Oxford University Press. 1996.
Freedman, D.N. “The Book of Job” in The Hebrew Bible and its Interpreters
ed.W Propp et al. Eisenbrauns. 1990.
Jung, C J. “Answer to Job” in The Collected Works.Volume Eleven, Pychology and Religion: East and West. Ed Sir Herbert Read, Michael Fordham, M.D., M.R.C.P., and Gerhard Adler, PhD.. Second Edition. Translated from the German by R.F. C. Hull.