Religion as a Primordial Experience

Jung draws a clear distinction between religion as a primordial experience and religion as an institution for transmitting the contents of belief. His attachment to the romantic concept of the unconscious predisposes him to take the “religious function” for granted as a component of the psyche, subtending any dogmatic formulation. He attributes to this function the deployment and self-realization of the totality centered on the archetype of the self, including such opposites as the values of good and evil. However, in the expression of Christian faith, the figure of God, unilaterally good, does not correspond to the psychic experience of the coexistence of polarities. In The seven Sermons to the Dead, the “Dead” are incomplete due to the unilaterality of their Christianity. Conversely, Job, who was subjected to the torments of the terrifying aspect of the divine, accedes to a truly individuated religion.