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תשובה לאיוב
מאת: קרל גוסטב יונג
Antwort auf Hiob - C.G. Jung

ההוצאה: רסלינג הספר תשובה לאיוב (1952) מאת קרל גוסטב יונג (1875-1961) מציע לקורא טקסט מורכב שמאפשר להתוודע לעושר הרוחני והדתי של המחבר. זו יצירה מאוחרת יחסית של יונג, לאחר שבשנות השבעים לחייו כבר ביסס את עצמו כבעל אסכולה עצמאית וחוקר דתות. במסה חריפה זו הוא בא ליישב שני חשבונות שנותרו פתוחים מבחינתו: זה עם האב הביולוגי, שהתמודד עמו מאז ילדותו, ודרכו עם הכנסייה הפרוטסטנטית והתיאולוגיה שלה; וזה עם האב הרוחני – פרויד, ודרכו גם עם היהדות. תשובה לאיוב פורסם שנים אחדות לאחר מלחמת העולם השנייה על זוועותיה ומוראותיה. זמן קצר לאחר השואה ולאחר הפצצת הירושימה הוא פנה להתמודד במרחב תיאולוגי עם בעיות קיום ומוסר שמעסיקות ויוסיפו להעסיק שורה שלמה של הוגים, יהודים ונוצרים כאחד. מתוך גישה פסיכולוגית עקיבה יונג מציב בסימן שאלה את חירותו של האל, שהרי הידיעה (או המודעות) היא בבחינת תנאי הכרחי של החירות. אל משולל ידיעה, אל שעוצמת כוחו הכול-יכול שולטת בו, הוא יצור נחות המשועבד לכוחות פנימיים וחיצוניים שאין לו שליטה עליהם. העימות בינו ובין איוב, כלומר בינו ובין היצור האנושי הנחות והסובל, אך בו בזמן גם בעל התודעה, משקף לראשונה עבור אלוהי המקרא את נחיתותו ומאלץ אותו לחרוג מתוך טבעו, להשתנות.

ניתוח פסיכולוגי זה של הביוגרפיה האלוהית מתמקד בשני היבטים, ואלה מרכיבים את רוב החיבור: חשיפתו של יסוד הרוע בתוך האלוהות וחשיפת היסוד הנשי. פולחן האל המושלם והכול-יכול נעשה בתוך כך למייצגה של גבריות עיוורת ואטומה, שאין בידה להכיל את היסודות הללו. מלבד הבעיה של ראיית האל ככול-יכול, יונג מערער גם על התפיסה בדבר טובו המוחלט של האל – הוא מציב מולה תפיסה של כוליות ושלמות שמחייבת את הכללתו של הרוע כחלק מהאלוהות.

לספר מצורפת הקדמה על שאלת הרוע בעיני יונג, מאת ד"ר יוסף שורץ מהמכון להיסטוריה ולפילוסופיה של המדעים והרעיונות ע"ש כהן באוניברסיטת תל אביב.

תשובה לאיוב בהוצאת רסלינג, תרגום: מרים קראוס וחיים מחלב, עריכה מדעית: יוסף שוורץ, 166 עמודים .

Answer to Job: Jung's authentic response - By David Hiles

The Book of Job has inspired many interpretations and commentaries. Carl Jung wrote his response as an Answer to Job (Jung, 1952), which he wrote in one burst of energy during an illness. It has been reported that during this illness a figure sat on his bedpost and dictated Answer to Job to him (see Edinger, 1992), in what seems to be a very similar experience to Jung's writing the Seven Sermons to the Dead, in 1916. After he had finished Answer to Job he felt well again. In Memories, Dreams, Reflections, (Jung, 1961), he remarks:

"The inner root of [Answer to Job] is to be found in Aion. There I had dealt with the psychology of Christianity, and Job is a kind of prefiguration of Christ. The link between them is the idea of suffering. Christ is the suffering servant of God, and so was Job . . . The ambivalent God-image plays a crucial part in the Book of Job . Job expects that God will, in a sense stand by him against God; in this we have a picture of God's tragic contradictoriness. This was the main theme of Answer to Job" (p. 243).

Jung goes on to point out that:

"The many questions from the public and from patients had made me feel that I must express myself more clearly about the religious problems of modern man. For years I hesitated to do so, because I was fully aware of the storm I would be unleashing. But at last I could not help being gripped by the problem, in all its urgency and difficulty, and I found myself compelled to give an answer. I did so in a form in which the problem had presented itself to me, that is, as an experience charged with emotion" (p. 243).

It should be noted that Answer to Job was the one work with which he was completely satisfied. In his old age, Jung once remarked that " . . now that he knew more he would like to rewrite all of his books except Answer to Job, but he would leave that one just as it stands" (von Franz, 1975, p. 161). Edward Edinger (1992) suggests that Answer to Job is possibly the most complete statement of Jung's essential message, but it is a message that has shocked many people, including theologians, other psychologists and even some of his close friends (see Adler, 1976).

Jung makes it clear that he is writing in the way that:

"a modern man with a Christian education and background comes to terms with the divine darkness which is unveiled in the Book of Job , and what effect it has on him" (Jung, C.W. 9, par. 561).

Jung is concerned with what he calls a psychic truth, and he proposes that the Book of Job can serve as a paradigm for a certain experience of God, and that this has a special significance for our situation in today's world (Jung, C.W. 9, par. 562). In the story of Job, the portrayal of Yahweh is as both a persecutor and a helper in the same image, and both aspects are as real as each other. Yahweh is not split but is a totality of inner opposites, and this Jung identifies as the coincidentia oppositorium, the conjunction of opposites (Jung, C.W. 9, par. 664). The importance of this conjunction must not be underestimated, and we will return to this matter later. Jung proposes that this terrible, tormenting image of Yahweh constitutes his moral defeat at the hands of Job, and consequently Job should be seen as standing morally higher than Yahweh (Jung, C.W. 9, par. 640).

What is striking about Answer to Job, is that the story of Job is only a starting point for Jung's sweeping survey of many of the books from the Old and New Testament which share a very similar theme. It turns out that Jung hardly mentions Job in the second half of his book, and also, more problematically, nothing is really resolved. Jung's Answer to Job is a very angry book, and as such it probably suffers from the projections and distortions that inevitably accompany human anger.

However, the main point to be made is that Jung presents his work as "an experience charged with emotion". Clearly Jung's answer is an authentic answer, and needs to be approached in precisely that way. Answer to Job is the culmination of Jung's own heuristic inquiry (see Moustakas, 1990; Hiles 1999), i.e. his own life-long inquiry into the exploration of the meaning of human suffering, and the tragic spiritual conflicts this must entail. Marie-Louise von Franz reports that when Jung was asked how he could live with the knowledge he had recorded in Answer to Job, he replied "I live in my deepest hell, and from there I cannot fall any further" (von Franz, 1975, p. 174).

What this suggests is that Jung's Answer to Job must be approached as an authentic account of his lived experience of the turmoil and conflict of opposites that were emerging from his scholarly work. Of course, it is only from such authentic accounts that human culture can slowly progress. Furthermore, it is important to realize that in this respect Jung's work is not at all unique. Indeed, the Book of Job itself is most certainly just such an authentic account, as too is William Blake's interpretation of the story of Job. The possibility that is explored here is that Blake perhaps went a little further than Jung in his exploration of the human psyche. However, any comparison of Blake and Jung is only incidental to the main task, which is to explore how Blake can offer any useful perspective on Jung's work.

From: Jung, William Blake and our answer to Job / David Hiles

תשובה לאיוב - קרל גוסטב יונג
Antwort auf Hiob - C.G. Jung