Transformation of the God-Image: An Elucidation of Jung's Answer to Job (Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian Analysts)

Rating:
Summary: A worthy companion piece
Review: I read Jung's Answer to Job and then moved on to this book by Edinger and found it really helpful in "unpacking" some of the information from Jung. I definitely recommend getting the two books together. I have some issues with Edinger, who remains at heart rather conservative. He also falls into a bit of hero worship with Jung. Still, his intellect is keen, and he is much easier to grasp than Jung (though Answer to Job is one of Jung's least obtuse). The lecture format is a blessing and a curse. It succeeds in drawing you in and imagining yourself there in Edinger's presence, but also results in the flow of the text being kind of loose. Beyond all this nitpicking, the topic covered is powerful, pressing, exciting, and challenging. It is the Jungian approach at it's best. Common sense and intellect are applied to the Western God-image without killing off that which is being studied. Very few authors seem interested or capable of engaging the God archetype at this level. Most revert to reconciling humanity with God's mysterious ways or decrying the limits of the Judeo-Christian archetype. These books are babysteps towards why God has progressed the way "he" has.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent in-depth treatment of Jung's most famous book
Review: Jung has said that Answer to Job is the one book he wrote he wouldn't change.

Answer to Job covers more than psychology, it is a book of poetic dimensions. It is notoriously hard to understand.

Edinger's work opens up the contents of Answer to Job. Every page of this wonderful little book is brimful of insights taking one from appreciation of Answer to Job to understanding.

Edinger has a gift for expressing complex ideas in simple concrete terms. He is a master educator. Jaffe has done a masterful job of converting Edinger's lectures into a book.

The book will give you a greater understanding of Jung, his spirtual quest, and Jungian spirtuality.

Jung is one of the twentieth century's greatest scientific, spiritual and cultural forces. Edinger helps one get more from Jung's rich mythopoeic and psychological insights.

The book is a paragraph by paragraph discussion of Jung's Answer to Job with additional material drawn from other writings of Jung and additional authors.