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Satan before the Throne of God Click on image to see detail.
The Book of Job represents a strong link among the Bible, Blake and Jung. In each their writing about Job involves development of thinking about the relationship of God and man. The Book of Job is a unique book in the Old Testament as it explores changing ideas about God; Jung's ANSWER TO JOB is the product of the wisdom he developed through experience of unconscious realities; Blake's ILLUSTRATIONS TO THE BOOK OF JOB develops the theme of Job as a part of Blake's vision.
Each author worked in his own milieu. JOB in the OT is a man of the OT culture undergoing the kind of encounters with God had by Abraham, Moses and the patriarchs. In ANSWER TO JOB, Jung works with psychological dynamics as expressed by the character Job in experiencing God's revelations. Blake creates an illustrated expression of Job's experience in the context of images from a broad understanding of psychological/spiritual symbols. The three documents complement one another and together enhance our understanding of the evolution of the consciousness of God.
There will be more about Job later; its a big subject.
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This is good stuff, Ellie. Job in the
ReplyDeleteO.T. is and has been quite a mystery
to the majority of Bible Readers, unpoetic by nature and likely to read the Bble literally.
Jung had a real problem with Job, rather IMO a real problem with God, which he expressed through his Answer to Job; I read it several times without ever getting much of a grasp of Job or Jung's attitude toward God.
Someone asked Jung if he believed in God; he replied I don't believe, I know. For Jung God was a psychic fact; he perceived it coming forth from the Unconscious of everyone he treated.
Blake, like Berkeley before him, saw everything in the imagination. (No one knows God; we only have our images of God!).
Blake learned from Ezekiel that "the perception of the Infinite" is man's primary task.
In Job they saw a drama of the changing of Job's mind about God, from a Big Daddy taking care of him, to a Great Mystery.
That Great Mystery is approached by each of us in accordance with who we are.