Sopanen, Johanna
(2018)
Ethneogenic Religion in the Red Book by Carl Jung.
Master thesis, Master Concealed Knowledge Gnosticism Mysticism and Esotericism.
Abstract
The Red Book by Carl Jung is a result of prophetic visions which came upon Jung in the beginning of the 20th century, and determined the course of the rest of his life. In my analysis I explored how the recently published manuscript filled with Gnostic Christian and Occult symbolism informs earlier criticism made regarding religious nature of Depth Psychology. I investigated the primary influences upon Jung’s early life which drew him towards study of the supernatural, and contextualized the story of the Red Book to the intellectual and historical time period. In addition, I investigated the magico-religious themes in the Red Book to evaluate their impact upon later work of Jung. My conclusion is that there have been profound religious influences in Jung’s work, and that Jung interpreted his visionary experiences to be in line with the experiences of historical Gnostics, which he connected to the ‘magical’ worldview of the primitives. Jung thought that knowledge of the transcendental realms was essentially psychological, not metaphysical. In line with a recently made argument by Wouter Hanegraaff I believe that the Red Book entails Jung’s individualized initiation ritual which leads to psychological wholeness and well-being through trials of imagination. Through the Red Book Jung constructed a “personal cosmology” to draw meaning from visionary experience which nearly made him lose his sanity. The Red Book does not imply a particular religious worldview but highlights the importance of intuitive forms of knowing which Jung sought connected one with divine image of the Self.
| Type: |
Thesis
(Master)
|
| Supervisors (RUG): |
| Supervisor | E-mail | Tutor organization | Tutor email |
|---|
| Visser-Nieraeth, A. | A.Visser-Nieraeth@rug.nl | | |
|
| Supervisors from outside the RUG: |
| Tutor outside | E-mail | Tutor outside organization | Tutor outside email |
|---|
| dr. Nante, Bernardo | | | |
|
| Degree programme: |
Master Concealed Knowledge Gnosticism Mysticism and Esotericism |
| Academic year: |
2017- 2018 |
| Date of delivery: |
12 Oct 2018 |
| Last modified: |
12 Oct 2018 09:40 |
| URI: |
https://rcs.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/411 |
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