Dr. Jung in his book “Answer to Job”, first published in 1954, concluded that the underlying reason for the Almighty’s appalling treatment of Job, ending with his thundering denunciation that “might was right”, was that ultimately the Almighty wanted to become Man. First in the incarnation of Jesus, and then in the incarnation of countless others. The introductory verses of John’s Gospel acknowledge this, as does St.Paul’s Epistle to the Galations. But Dr. Jung wisely recognised that the collisions between these incarnated people would become intolerable without some over-riding discipline. And he mentions that uncomfortable saying of Jesus that anyone who believed in him would be able to do all that he had done, and greater things still because he was going to the Father. This surely provides the self-discipline necessary to keep all those, who think they are the sons and daughters of God, within the bounds of sanity and self-control? Without such a discipline, there would be nothing strong enough in their psyches to hold them back from all kinds of absurdity. My solution to the problem is to avoid the embarrassing language of “Incarnation” altogether.
So if this is the right approach, then anyone who claims to be a child of God, whether by predestination or adoption, must be able to say sincerely and truthfully that he, or she, has done something or at least attempted to do something, greater than Jesus ever did. If he, or she, cannot make that claim, then they had far better keep their mouths shut about Incarnation. They have not made the grade. I once heard a clergyman preach that his turning the bread and wine into the very body and blood of Jesus, in a heavenly and spiritual manner as the 39 Articles say, had performed a greater miracle than all Christ’s healing miracles put together. But that was just preposterous vanity!
And does not our poor country need to recover the idea of a disciplined, tolerant society, in which people are honest, do a hard day’s work, and in which all social classes mix on terms of good humour? As it is, everything is at sixes and sevens. Our tolerance allows fanaticism to be preached; our sense of Justice has allowed the compensation culture to get out of hand; those in authority fiddle their expenses, and set an bad example to the rest of us; and so on. We most certainly need a new vision of Society: a society where not everything is priced in terms of money. What is money after all? Only commercial credit. Only financial confidence. And we need much more confidence than that! We need to have confidence in money, and in many other things as well.
My vision, that ideally the relationship between man and woman should be the same indwelling that is supposed to exist between God and the soul, has the merit that the same loyalty can embrace both the religious world, and one’s secular efforts to do something in the world of affairs. The best that Augustine was able to conceive was that the City of God should sit beside the City of Rome, inspiring it, sustaining it, occasionally rebuking it, yet sympathetic to its struggle to contain the chaos in the world outside. But they were still two worlds. In my synthesis they are one world. That is the difference. Man’s Relationship with God is an account of what I attempted.
As regards this New Creation, Jesus was man enough to realise that he could not provide the last word on every subject. So with great wisdom, the night before he died he envisaged that the achievements of his followers would one day far outstrip his. So we can rejoice that he saved the world. By his sacrifice, he led us out of the world of Nature’s Evolution, and into the world of God’s evolution of the Spirit. In other words into a new creation.
The clergy alas have done their utmost to keep us all in the old Evolution. But those of us with the confidence to ignore them, can set about building a decent, just society in England, and in the English speaking world. We can imitate Piers the Ploughman: he set off to do just that at the end of the medieval novel. And we can hope that in time it may extend to European countries too!