Besides, what one wants is not the ecstasy of mystical union, valuable though that is as an encouragement occasionally; what one wants is right conduct, particularly in the leaders. It is by their fruits that people and institutions are judged; and that usually means by the consequences of their conduct.
One must avoid too much wishful thinking. Every man has his female side, which Jung called his “anima”. And every woman has her male side, which Jung called her “animus”. And it is all to easy for a man to project onto his anima his vision of this woman, or that woman, and see in her all the perfection for which his anima craves. Then he is upset, when she fails to live up to his expectations. This is sometimes called “falling in love”; though I doubt if it is the real thing. At least I hope there is more to it than this. In just the same way, we can all project onto our anthropomorphic image of God, which Jung said is deeply written into the Psyche, the image of God in this, that, or the other religion. Then the man is upset, and says, “How can God do this to me?” when providence turns adverse. This is often called “Piety”; but probably sanctimonious self-indulgence is a better word for it. As I wrote earlier, the problem is how to hold fast to the truth, both in the material and spiritual worlds, and leave magic and anything resembling magic behind. It is all too easy to confuse wishful thinking, and hard spiritual reality. This is one of the functions of prayer, even anguished prayer: to be able to distinguish between the two, in any particular situation.
I think one of the things that makes Christianity stand out is the exhortation to “Love your enemies”. When one considers the public protests of Islam, threatening fire and slaughter to those they are protesting against, it is difficult for them to claim that “loving their enemies” is one of their treasured beliefs? The Western Allies may have breathed fire and slaughter over Germany during the Second World War, but Nazi Germany had threatened to annihilate us earlier; and the Western Allies did do their best to rehabilitate Germany after it was all over. No-one has threatened to annihilate Islam. The other distinctive feature of Christianity is the belief that God seeks Man’s friendship; indeed I suggest that the simplest “explanation” of Evolution is the idea that the mind of God is seeking and gradually finding communication with the slowly awakening consciousness of man. And any self-respecting scientist must accept the simplest “explanation” of any phenomenon, because you do not multiply imponderables, or crave in aid useless concepts like the Victorian “aether”. The simplest description is the one likely to be nearest the truth. But this concept of His seeking man’s friendship goes much further than mystical union; it embraces the concept of a union that results in much more effective conduct in the everyday world of affairs.
Religion Rewritten, a religious view of nature and the universe.
Essay 1 - Jesus' Unique Message.