Christianity as Historical Fact
Through
the investigation of the dreams of his patients (Jung) discovered that these
contents go on appearing and operating, producing living effects in the inner
psychic world, quite untroubled by the dreamer’s rationalistic conscious
judgments. But, according to Jung, these
symbolic religious
experiences do not spring from personally acquired complexes but rather from a
much deeper, generally human
unconscious psychic
matrix that, as is well known, he called the
collective
unconscious, and also the “objective
psyche.” P&R 52
Christianity
was born out of a meditation on disillusion. In the first
centuries B.C. and A.D., the whole Jewish race was excited about the end of the
world. The Dead Sea Scrolls tell us all about this.
It was going to come. Christianity was born out of
this. And then every thousand years the Christians think the
world is going to end again. In the year 1000 there were
people in
Problems with Christian historical fact
The first people to listen to
The religious tradition that was put into you in infancy is still there.
There’s no use getting rid of it just because you can’t interpret these
forms in terms of modern scientific realizations. There
cannot have been an ascension to heaven. There cannot have
been an assumption to heaven. Even at the speed of light
those bodies would not yet be out of the galaxy. But we’re
taught that this assumption and this ascension were physical events when they
can’t have been. Such an interpretation is losing the message
in the symbol. The coordination of earthly and spiritual
realizations can be interpreted out of those symbols. TMTT
206
I’m going to make just a brief reference to what happened with
Christianity in those early centuries (~300AD). There was a
conflict between two interpretations of the Christ: either as an example of the
mystery hero who dies to be resurrected or as the unique incarnation.
That was the big argument between the Gnostics and the Orthodox Christian
community. The Orthodox community opted for the importance of
the historicity of the incarnation, and to know what the Christian belief is,
you have only to recite the credo known as the “Apostles’ Creed” with attention
to what you’re saying.
“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.”
That’s that. “And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our
Lord; Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary … suffered
under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.”
Now those last few phrases – “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified,
died, and was buried” – are the only historical statements in that sentence.
The rest of it is mythology. “He descended into hell.”
This is all to be taken literally. “The third day He
rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, sitteth at
the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, from whence He shall come to judge
the living and the dead.” Do you believe those things
literally? “I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic
church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of
the body, and life everlasting, Amen.”
Now as for the resurrection of the body, I can give you some assurance on
that. You’ll be thirty-five years old, the age of the body in
its perfection. So, try to remember how it was back then, or
get ready for a good-looking future condition, and you’ll have life everlasting.
Thirty-five years old, perfect – and won’t it be a bore?
O.K., that’s the story. TMTT 208
(In
the Gospel of Mark) Jesus is reported to have said, “Truly, I say to you, this
generation will not pass away before all these things take place.”
But actually, that generation did pass away, and many more have passed
away, and those things have not taken place. RG 19
When you go into a church, you often see the stations of the cross around
you, and there is meant to be no doubt that this represents what actually did
happen to Jesus of Nazareth on the day of his crucifixion: first Jesus’
condemnation by Pilate, then Jesus’ taking up the cross, then Jesus stumbling,
and so forth, on up to his being laid in his tomb. The
station that would come after the one showing the burial – the station that
isn’t shown as part of the series – would be the Resurrection.
And finally after that would come still another one, the ascension
to heaven.
Now, if all that is taken literally, then you’re in trouble.
Read a modern book of physics, and you’ll wonder where he went – even
going at the speed of light, he would not be out of the galaxy yet.
Then we find there’s no literal place for the literal body to go, so we
say “This is untrue.” We lose our religion; we lose our
symbols.
When the symbol is interpreted concretely that way, you’ve lost the
message. The symbol that should be introducing us to
our own deep, inward life is lost and we have no vehicle for connection.
So the popular way of interpreting the word myth is “falsehood,”
whereas myths, in the sense that I’m speaking of them, are the final terms of
wisdom – that is the wisdoms of the deep mysteries of life. G
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