| The thesis attempts a historical-comparative study of the understanding of personality in Jung's psychology and Berdyaev's philosophy with special attention to the role the Christian heritage plays for both.
It adopts the following thesis of G. Koepgen, to whom Jung paid special attention in the context of his study of Christian Symbolism: Wenn es so etwas wie eine abendlaendische Geistesgeschichte gibt...dann muesste sie unter dem Gesichtspunkt stehen: Die unter dem Einfluss des Trinitaetsdogmas erwachende Persoenlichkeit des abendlaendischen Menschen (Koepgen, 1978,198) (If something like an occidental cultural history existed..it would have to be placed under the following perspective: The awakening of personality of occidental man under the influence of the Trinitarian Dogma).
The thesis identifies common features as well as differences in the view of both authors and traces their roots to different epistemological foundations based on different understandings of Kantian epistemology.
It identifies in the concept of personality a point of convergence between the psychological and existential-philosophical point of view, rooted in the fact that personality, if it exists, is as much a psychological as a spiritual reality. It sees the inevitable transgression of Jung's psychology into the fields of philosophy and theology as a consequence of his attempt to develop a holistic view of psychic process centered in the concept of the person.
The aim is to explore to what extent Berdyaev’s Christian personalism can contribute to one possible re-interpretation of Jung's corpus of writings on Christianity which adressess the problems for modern man which Jung identified in traditional Christianity while avoiding certain conclusions flowing from Jung's writings which appear incompatible with Christianity, i.e. the notion of the 'unconscious God' which is coming to consciousness in humanity (expressed esp in Answer to Job and Jung's letters).
Berdyaev's philosophy is of particular interest in this context because it offers an alternative development of the idealist interpretation of the symbol of the Trinty (which has its historical antecedents in Joachim de Fiore and J. Boehme) which form a largely implicit influence on Jung’s interpretation of Christianity. |