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The Religious Function of the Psyche

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This book is packed with Jungian concepts. It is not at all a book for casual reading, something one just breezes through then shelves. It a text that one reads and then meditates upon and then reads again later on. Very difficult to milk it dry. One comes back and must come back to every page again and again if one is to relish all that Corbett has locked in his book.

Don't be misled by its length. Although just over 250 pages, every chapter is brimming with insights. Compared to the publications by the Jungian publisher Inner City Books whose titles are usually just over 100 pages long, I would say _Religious Function of the Psyche_ is equivalent to 10 of them. The adjective that comes to mind is rich, extremely rich.

Feast upon such insights as the following:

"Our emotional suffering always contains an element of the divine. The archetype at the center of the complex, no matter how painful, is this element, so there is no escape from the numinosum at the core of our difficulty. This is why the Self images which appear to us always contain elements of our deepest needs and fears. If the divine is never further away than our suffering, then our suffering becomes the beginning of our spirituality. Any attempt to develop spiritual techniques that do not penetrate and understand suffering, run the risk of avoiding the sacred itself."

I dare say it is one of the best Jungian books I have come across. The style of writing and the depth to which it dives bears the distinctive mark of introverted intuitive thinking--the very same typology that characterizes Carl Jung. It is technical in this sense--that it is deep and adroit--but Corbett is not muddled in his writing. On the contrary he is able to bring his audience to a very high level without the reader experiencing vertigo (and should you notice that I have contradictory metaphors here, please note that it is a fact that the highest is also the deepest and vice versa). Hats off to Mr. Corbett for achieving this rare feat. Even Jung's abstruse writings cannot compare with the Corbett's lucidity.

Fascinating and thorough and utterly compelling, Dr. Corbett's book is an amazing look at the relationship between psyche and spirit. Recommended!

who feel a deeply religious sense, yet don't respond to, or find meaning in institutional religion as it's presented.

I've given up on collective religion and have turned to Jung/depth psychology as a means of relating to the most important area of life: inner meaning and value.

This book reflected what I've long thought: all of us are potentially capable of incarnating the archetypes presented by the organized religions. This book helps to free the images and symbols from their "religious" matrix.

Just as the medieval alchemists pried out symbols and images from the matrix of religion and mythology, this book shows that the "religious" themes do not have to be related to within the confines of the formal religious structures. Through many ways, the individual can relate to the autonomous psyche and need not be bound by tradition.

The book is vast in scope. The first time I read it, I underlined in red, went back later and read what I'd underlined. Later, I'll read it again...and again.

I can't begin to review this whole book! The author draws from many sources and his perspective is extemely broad. He's obviously studied many religions and thought deeply and profoundly on the the relationship between the collective relgions and depth psychology. But for me, at the level of a "seeker" without a formal container such as one of the formal religions, this book serves as a bridge, giving my "search" validity outside the accepted traditions. I'm a layman and the book is geared, I think, toward the professional, to some extent. Still, if one has read Jung, Edinger and has deep interest in these matters the book is worth every effort necessary to understand and assimilate it.

Really, I think there are many of us travelling in the same boat. The old institutions don't apply any more for us. But the feeling of the sacred, the numinous, the transpersonal, something more than ego is riding along with us. If it seems that way to you, read this book!

This useful exposition on the transpersonal dynamics of the psyche belongs on every depth-psych reader's bookshelf. It also provides some corrective insights into the limitations of classical Jungian thought and archetypal psychology. Not for beginners. Definitely recommended. -- Craig Chalquist, creator of the To Thine Own Self site on the Web.

This book is a dense but nearly flawless exposition of the most important concepts concerning post-Jungian depth psychology and its relation to theology. Corbett explores ideas such as fate and freewill and the role of man in freely helping God achieve some kind of higher perfection through the evolution of consciousness. This goes back to the classic Jungian concept that man has to help God resolve the divine self-contradiction. This idea is extremely problematic for traditional, orthodox evangelical theology. However, recent trends in natural and systematic theology (Pannenberg, Moltmann, Tillich, etc.) have opened the door to reconciliation between theology and Jungian psychology on this issue. Even for evangelical theologians this book is very important - especially in understanding what kinds of alternative theories evangelical theology must contend with.

One of the most important ideas in this book involves the ontological value or effects of suffering. In other words, the value of suffering in terms of establishing conscious being and propelling a search for meaning that leads to higher levels of compassion, empathy, and understanding. On page 177, Corbett says "Meister Eckhart described suffering as 'the fastest horse which will carry you to perfection.'" He also says "I consider suffering to be successful when it results in any of the following outcomes: increased empathy for the suffering of others; improved ability for relationships; the dissolution of narcissistic structures such as arrogance; new experiential knowledge of the Self; increased wisdom" (p.176).

In another passage, quoting Jung, he says that "human consciousness is essential to divinity; our consciousness should be 'an instrument of divine will'" (p.134). Following up on this concept he adds that "man makes God" (p.135) and "Humanity is then God's growing place" (p.202). This is where the split occurs with evangelical theologians, who would maintain that God does not really need man and He is perfect even without us, and that we are fallen and our shadow aspects are not really products of God's will. Corbett maintains that suffering can be an essential building block of consciousness and the sin that leads to suffering and evil can be rationalized as part of God's will. "Lucifer is necessary to creation" (p.197). Corbett states that "Jung's approach to suffering involves offering himself as a vessel for the transformation of God, by means of the incarnation of the Self within him" (pp.134-135). "The ego is needed for the realization of the Self. This attitude is tne answer to the 'why' of suffering" (134). Finally, "Humanity is instrumental in carrying out this incarnation - Jung suggests that we serve a supreme power, and our demonic, destructive nature should show how we are penetrated by God, or how God incarnates his darkness through humanity" (p.198).

These concepts are problematic but ultimately enlightening for theologians. Natural theologians such as Teilhard de Chardin would agree with the idea that suffering and the destructive human nature that led to the crucifixion are just essential stages leading to higher consciousness. This involves a form of pantheism, which evangelical theologians hate, but systematic / natural theologians have determined to be essential. This type of pantheism basically states that God is everywhere, in all things including suffering and evil. Because suffering has this redemptive value in terms of propelling higher consciousness, we can find God at work here. This entire drama that is played out within humanity is then an essential expression of God. and the Holy Spirit (or large Self). When Corbett uses the capitalized large "Self", he is referring to the Holy Spirit, which is realized when we realize that every twist and turn in our fate was essential. Psychological complexes help us to understand the subconscious, beneficial effect of death-anxiety/ awareness of finitude, and this is ultimately the key to achieving harmony and understanding of the work of the Spirit. Corbett will help theologians achive this understanding.