The Unfolding God of Jung and MiltonIn this first extensive Jungian treatment of Milton's major poems, James P. Driscoll uses archetypal psychology to explore Milton's great themes of God, man, woman, and evil and offers readers deepened understanding of Jung's profound thoughts on Godhead. The Father, the Son, Satan, Messiah, Samson, Adam, and Eve gain new dimensions of meaning as their stories become epiphanies of the archetypes of Godhead. God and Satan of Paradise Lost are seen as the ego and the shadow of a single unfolding personality whose anima is the Holy Spirit and Milton's muse. Samson carries the Yahweh archetype examined by Jung in Answer to Job, and Messiah and Satan in Paradise Regained embody the hostile brothers archetype. Anima, animus and the individuation drive underlie the psychodynamics of Adam and Eve's fall. Driscoll draws on his critical acumen and scholarly knowledge of Renaissance literature to shed new light on Jung's psychology of religion. The Unfolding God of Jung and Milton illumines Jung's heterodox notion of Godhead as a quarternity rather than a trinity, his revolutionary concept of a divine individuation process, his radical solution to the problem of evil, and his wrestling with the feminine in Godhead. The book's glossary of Jungian terms, written for literary critics and theologians rather than clinicians, is exceptionally detailed and insightful. Beyond enriching our understanding of Jung and Milton, Driscoll's discussion contributes to theodicy, to process theology, and to the study of myths and archetypes in literature. |
From inside the book
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... , Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Milton for instance—amplify images, myths, and symbols to give us glimpses, or epiphanies, of their culture's prime archetypes or gods. Let me turn to the critic's goal, archetypal meaning. Just.
... epiphanies of the primal archetypes of Godhead. Approaching Godhead in Milton we should seek not what is old, for that merely reiterates doctrine, but what, in his distinctive treatment of archetypes, evinces upward spiraling ...
... many quiet epiphanies of Godhead, allows us to conclude that man's fall was not fortunate and ours, therefore, is not the best possible universe.25 Better than our universe where God busies himself turning Satan's and man's.
... epiphanies of the fundamental flaw in orthodox Christian theodicy: although orthodoxy relies on stasis to support God's perfection, it cannot defend that perfection in light of his responsibility for Satan's evil and man's sin. Where ...
... epiphanies. Subsequent chapters will expose these epiphanies to critical scrutiny. In preparation for that critical endeavor, we need to examine further the archetypes of Godhead and the ethical and philosophical stances they generate ...