Now there are certainly two views on the wisdom of the Iraq War; in retrospect it looks as if it may have been wrong, even folly. But that is not the point. The point is that being willing to go to war is an essential option, if civilized society is to survive. Germany became a rogue state in 1917/18, and the Treaty of Versailles did nothing to put this matter right. It did nothing to help law-abiding Germans regain their ascendancy in the community in the inter-war years. Very much the same process is taking place in our own country today, under the smoke-screen of political correctness; and the sects of the Church are still concerned to get us into heaven, just as 1600 years ago the Church was more concerned with the Pelagian heresy, than what was happening next door in Gaul.
There is no incompatibility between the Christian God and Jung’s idea of the Spirit lurking in the depths of the psyche, with the corollary that if you fall out with the spirit within you have mental problems, and if you break with the spirit you develop schizophrenia. You may be able to ignore him with relative immunity; but not fall out with him. And of course it depends on the nature of the spirit within. Christianity differs from all other religions, in that it believes that the Deity welcomes the companionship and cooperation of men and women; of course you have to accept His conditions, and there may not be any general agreement on what those conditions are. But as far as I am aware, no other religion even contemplates this degree of intimacy; and I was bold enough, or rash enough, to think that the same degree of intimacy might exist between a man and a woman too.
Am I saying that Jesus led a unique life, and that he gives little guidance to us as to how to behave? Not at all. I am saying we must try to understand what he was attempting to achieve, or attempting to teach us; and then consider how much we can do, in the very different social conditions in which we find ourselves. So first, what did he try to achieve?
I am sufficiently orthodox to say that I believe Jesus tried to give us himself; it is in this sense that I interpret his use of the somewhat gruesome symbolism of the corn and wine gods of antiquity when he inaugurated the ceremony of the Last Supper.
In my “Reconciliation with Science and War” I discussed the possibility that Jesus did indeed consider himself as immortal here in this world. But I was not saying that Jesus was immortal in this world; nor am I saying it now. I am assuming that he confidently believed, rightly or wrongly, that he was immortal in the here and now, and that he wanted to do whatever was necessary to share that immortality with his contemporaries. And I am asking if in those circumstances he would have behaved any differently to the way he is reported to have behaved? If the answer is, No; that is strong evidence that he did indeed believe he was immortal, and did indeed want to share his immortality (if he had it) with mankind.