Quakerism and Jungian Psychology
John R. Yungblut
The Friends Conference on Religion and
Psychology is itself testimony to the affinities that exist between Quakerism
and Jungian psychology. The Conference has been held annually for more than 50
years. Since its focus is on Jungian psychology, it would seem that the
dialogue between Quakerism and Jungian psychology is potentially inexhaustible.
Is this not because the "mythologies" of the two are on convergent courses?
The purpose of this statement is to explore these affinities and to identify
differences.
Depth Psychology and Religious Experience
Let us begin by recollecting that the word
religion springs from the Latin religlo, religare, which means literally
to bind together in one sheaf. Quakerism is concerned to further a
"gathered" quality in the individual. Jungian psychology has much to
say about wholeness. The distinctive province of religion, including the Quaker
form of spirituality, is the quest to "get it all together." Jungian
psychology extends this quest to include incorporating the contents of the
unconscious and integrating them with consciousness. It seeks to bind into one
sheaf the whole of the personality.
Jung has said that the unconscious is "the
only accessible source of religious experience1." The ultimate source is
presumably God. But the only accessible source is the unconscious. For Jung
access to the unconscious was primarily through dreams and fantasy. For Friends
a third means of access has been contemplative prayer in solitude and corporate
prayer in the context of the silence of Meeting for Worship. In these two ways
that of God within, the God who dwells in the "thick darkness" of the
unconscious, is given an opportunity to speak and to be heard. Quakers are not
only admonished to answer to that of God in everyone, but by implication to
answer to that of God in themselves.
Jung�s reverence for the Self God within hidden
in the depths of the unconscious, made his practice of analysis a form of spiritual
guidance. His approach can be seen as a way of answering to that of God.
The Question of the Shadow
Jungian psychology is reminding Quakers that in
addition to there being that of God in everyone, there is also that of the
Devil (speaking metaphorically) in everyone. Sweetness and light must not
conceal the presence of meanness and darkness in each of us. Friends are
learning that the historic aspiration to perfection must be replaced by the
Jungian aspiration to wholeness. The Biblical directive, "Be ye therefore
perfect" becomes "Be ye therefore whole."
The idea of the shadow looms large in Jungian
psychology. Many Quakers who are concerned to "follow the light" are
perplexed by the persistence of a tug in the opposite direction. They are aware
experientially on occasion of a built-in perversity that decrees that the
higher the aspiration the greater the potential fall therefrom. They may be
comforted by Paul�s confession: "The good that I would I do not, and the
evil I would not, that I do."2 But Jungian psychology is likely
to comfort them even more by offering them an understanding of the psyche which
takes this phenomenon into account, even if it does not ultimately solve the
problem of evil.
Quakerism lends support to the consensus of the
mystics that the world is one. Mystics are characteristically monist rather
than pluralist in their ultimate view of the universe. Jung was clearly a
mystic, as his autobiography amply attests, the criteria being an experience of
identification with all things and a sense of the interpenetration of all
things. It is therefore not surprising that Jung holds God accountable for the
presence of evil in the world, though not of course, for its individual
manifestations. There is Biblical precedence in the statement Isaiah attributes
to God: "I create good. I also create evil." (Isaiah 45:7)
One of the most distinctive aspects of Jung�s
mythology was his development of the idea of the "dark side of God."
In response to a query by a journalist as to his understanding of God, he
replied:
To this day, God is the name by which I
designate all things which cross my willful path violently and recklessly, all
things which upset my subjective views, plans and intentions and change the
course of my life for better or for worse.3
In the experience of George Fox the ocean of
darkness was overcome by the ocean of light. But darkness is still
unaccountably there. The universe reflects now and again the cosmic shadow. The
indifference of the elements to human comfort is one aspect of its ever-present
manifestations. The inhumanity of men and women to one another and to other
life forms is another. Unmerited suffering is a third area. But the impulse to
evil, this demonic element in the human psyche, remains the closest and most
pervasive reminder of the existence of evil. Perhaps it is their emphasis on
the light that makes Quakers peculiarly vulnerable to this insight of Jungian
psychology.
Individuation and the Voice Within
The objective of Jungian psychology is to
assist us in the process of realizing individuation. Though Quakers have not
characteristically used this term, they have attached supreme value to the
individual�s discernment of the voice within, regardless of whether it
corresponds with the collective voice or not. Jung raised what was for him the
crucial question:
Have I any religious experience and immediate
relation to God, and hence that certainty which will keep me, as an individual,
from dissolving in the crowd?4
The Quaker counterpart to Jung�s query is
expressed in the words of George Fox, "You will say, Christ saith this,
and the apostles say this; but what canst thou say?"5 It is
true that from one point of view the Quaker Meeting for Business pays tribute
to the importance of the collective in its practice of waiting until the sense
of the Meeting is reached before taking action. But a solitary individual can
effectively block a decision by failing to consent to it.
Jung draws a distinction between a creed and a
religion. The adherents of a creed are satisfied with membership in a
collective. Those who are possessed of a first-hand religious experience depend
primarily on a relation to "an authority which is not of this world."
Quakers do not have a formal creed. Their nearest approach to one is the conviction
that there is that of God in every person. Jung makes a special plea to credal
Christians that they interpret their creeds, just for once, in a metaphorical
sense, if indeed they retain them at all.
Openness to Fresh Revelation
The absence of a formal creed in Quakerism
makes possible a certain open-endedness theologically. This is another reason
why Quakers feel confirmed by Jungian psychology. This open-endedness has
enabled Quakers to accommodate scientific discoveries in their world view more
readily, generally speaking, than those of other denominations. They believe
passionately in the continuing possibility of fresh revelation. The ease with
which Quakers assimilated the discovery of the fact of evolution is a case in
point. There is a marked interest in the findings of scientific research among
members of the Society of Friends and a readiness to embrace new truths so
revealed. This accounts in part for the fascination psychology, especially
depth psychology, holds for Quakers. Has not psychology been defined as
"the newest of the sciences, the oldest of the arts?" Both as science
and as art Jungian psychology attracts Friends.
Yet another point of convergence between
Quakerism and Jungian psychology arises from Jung�s idea of synchronicity, a
term he used for meaningful coincidences. Quakers have a metaphor for the
experience of synchronicity: "as way opens." It denotes trust in the
meaningfulness of seeming coincidences. Both Quakerism and Jungian psychology
acknowledge this mystery with appropriate wonder. Both views are more modest
than the claims of divine providence or predestination. Once again, the new
science of psychology would seem to substantiate Quaker experience.
Archetypes and Continuing Evolution
The archetypes of Jungian psychology could be likened
to guardian angels that point the way to greater consciousness. To change the
metaphor, they act as guard rails to keep us safely on the road that leads to
ever greater individuation and wholeness. These numinous images that appear in
dreams and fantasies are to be respected, even honored. Historic Quakerism and
Jungian psychology are together on this, though they have not used the same
words for the same reality.
Some Friends, like Kenneth Boulding, whose
thinking was in the context of continuing creation through evolution, might
well want to extend Jung�s concept of archetypes to include the don vital that
fuels the further development of the species, Homo sapiens. The numinous images
that can keep the individual on course to individuation must indeed be
augmented by archetypal images intended to keep the whole species on course
toward a mutation from Homo sapiens to the next possible step in human
evolution, Homo spiritus. The child within may not only symbolize the need for
nourishing some neglected talent or healing some unresolved early conflict, but
could speak to us as well of undeveloped qualities for which the future of the
species languishes. Jung�s vision cries aloud to be expanded in an evolutionary
context. Archetypes afford the species direction toward the capacity for
developing higher consciousness.
Quakerism and the Collective Unconscious
When Jung says that the archetype of the self
and the archetype of the Self, God within, are ultimately indistinguishable, he
is certainly affirming the Quaker position that there is that of God in
everyone. This is a mystical affirmation. The distinction of Quakerism, and one
of the points at which it has something to offer Jungian psychology, is that
its Meeting for Worship is an experiment in group mysticism. It attests that
the presence of the Self can be experienced in the collective of a Meeting for
Worship.
If, as Jung insists, the unconscious is the
only accessible source of religious experience, the Friends Meeting for Worship
offers a means for collective access to the unconscious and hence to religious
experience. Perhaps that is why in the occasional "covered" Meeting
the sense of Presence is so compelling. It is a corporate experience of the
numinous interpenetrating the unconscious of those present. This would account
for the unconscious prestige manifested by "weighty" Friends whose
charisma lies in their power to quicken the Spirit in the unconscious of
others. But Jung rightly warns that this power is forfeited the moment it
becomes a self-conscious intent.
The strength of the historic Peace Testimony
and the witness of Quaker commitment to corporate social action substantiate
Jung�s insights into the nature and dynamics of the collective unconscious.
This would explain the deep experience of bondedness that emerges from a
corporate commitment to non-violent direct action. The individual remains, as
Jung says, the "makeweight" of social change. But many individuals
united in a corporate witness enhance the energy and in turn the depth and
effectiveness of that witness.
Masculine and Feminine Together
Finally, Jung�s insight into the function of
the animus and anima is congenial to Friends� experience historically. From the
beginning the Society of Friends has recognized the importance of acknowledging
the equality of the sexes. A Quaker "apostolic succession" has had
equal representation of men and women. Though at some places and at some times
Quaker men and women have held separate Meetings for Business, there was always
coordination between them and the shared discipline of waiting upon the
attainment of the sense of the Meeting. Moreover, the leaders of the Society
have in their own persons reflected an observable balance between masculine and
feminine qualities. Though Friends have been aware of distinctions between
masculine and feminine characteristics, in general they have recognized the
infinite variety of these components in individual men and women. And they have
intuitively known that integration between the masculine and feminine, the
animus and the anima, must be pursued if an individual is to attain a measure
of individuation and become "a gathered person."
It is not surprising then that Jungian
psychology and Quakerism should find themselves on convergent courses. May the
Friends Conference on Religion and Psychology continue to explore these
affinities and to further the growth of Quakerism and Jungian psychology to
their mutual benefit!
ENDNOTES
1. C. G. Jung, The
Undiscovered Self, Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1958, p.
89.
2. Romans 7:15.
3. "Interview with C. G.
Jung," Good Housekeeping Magazine, December
1961.
4. C. G. Jung, The
Undiscovered Self, Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1958,
p.88.
5. Journal of George Fox,
edited by John L. Nickalls, London: Religious Society of Friends, 1975, p.
xxvi.
John Yungblut was well known for much of his life in both
the Quaker and the Jungian worlds. He was born and raised in Dayton, Kentucky.
He was a graduate of Harvard College and did his graduate study in theology at
Harvard Divinity School and the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. He served in the Episcopal ministry for 20 years, and in 1960
became a member of the Religious Society of Friends. He since served
successively as Director of Quaker House, Atlanta; Director of International
Student House, Washington, D. C.; Director of Studies at Pendle Hill,
Wallingford, Pennsylvania; and, Director of the Guild for Spiritual Guidance in
Rye, New York. Encouraged by Rufus Jones to study the mystics, John was a
lifelong student of the mystical approach to religious experience, and a
student of the writing of C. G. Jung and Teilhard de Chardin. He aspired to be
an apologist for the mystical heritage in Christianity, updated by Jung�s myth
of the psyche and Teilhard�s myth of cosmogenesis (a universe still being
born). He was the author of five books and several Pendle Hill pamphlets.
