Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Holiday Blues

I feel that I have neglected by blog for some time now because I have not had any interesting new immigration/deportation issue come across my desk. So as an alternative I will briefly blog about my most recent reading material, Psychology & Religion by Carl Jung.

In his discussion of religion, Jung makes a clear distinction between religion which he calls "a peculiar attitude of the human mind . . . that is, a careful consideration and observation of certain dynamic factors, understood to be 'powers,' spirits, demons, gods, laws, ideas, ideals or whatever name man has given to such factors as he has found in his world powerful, dangerous or helpful enough to be taken into careful consideration, or grand, beautiful and meaningful enough to be devoutly adored and loved," and a creed.

Jung describes as creed as "codified and dogmatized forms of original religious experience. The contents of the experience have become sanctified and usually congealed in a rigid, often elaborate, structure. The practice and the reproduction of the original experience have become a ritual and an unchangeable institution."