Padre
Puritan Board Freshman
Hello friends,
I first heard about Carl Jung in my Doctrine and Christian History classes in which he was introduced as a neo-gnostic occultist. Following my own research I discovered that he was born into a Christian home, but rejected the faith and started to worship Abraxas (gnostic god). In fact he wore a gnostic ring with a serpent on it and is praised as one of the heads of the New Age movement.
Jung’s ‘sermons to the dead’ and his commentary on the book of Job, are telling of his beliefs. He had many gnostic beliefs, notably a twisted view of God and he wanted to add a fourth person to the Trinity, representing evil. It’s the whole duality that says ‘good needs evil, light needs darkness, yin needs yang’, and so forth. This concept of opposites has been carried over in the material for the Myers Briggs personality tests (MBTI), who’s founders openly credited Carl Jung as the originator of their principles and methodology.
At the time, I could not find any scriptural support for Jung’s classification of personality types as intrinsic ‘gifts’ that govern the way we behave in any given circumstance. In a way, the MBTI method seemed akin to horoscopes, star signs, fatalism, fortune cookies, blood type, tarot, and other vaguely worded tools for reading ones life.
So fast forward three years and I went to a conference/retreat where I was surprised to see the Myers Briggs personality test being promoted to evangelicals as a tool for ministry and worship. I was even more surprised when I raised the issue of its Jungian origins to other ministers and they defended it as an important Christian tool. Regardless of its questionable origins, they seemed to believe that the thought could be separated from the thinker.
My question is this:
At what point does Gnosticism stop being gnostic?
And for those who promote Myers Briggs, how can you justify adhering to a philosophy (of personality types) that is unashamedly connected to the teachings of an occultist (Carl Jung)?
Likewise, has anybody carried out any extensive research into the beliefs of Carl Jung, Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers?
I am not trying to be rude, I just can’t understand the double standard, as it appears that the same Reformed Christians who reject Carl Jung’s unbiblical views, with the same breath accept his teachings in the form of the Myers Briggs personality test. Some going as far to use it to write sermons, plan evangelism and categorise elders.
I first heard about Carl Jung in my Doctrine and Christian History classes in which he was introduced as a neo-gnostic occultist. Following my own research I discovered that he was born into a Christian home, but rejected the faith and started to worship Abraxas (gnostic god). In fact he wore a gnostic ring with a serpent on it and is praised as one of the heads of the New Age movement.
Jung’s ‘sermons to the dead’ and his commentary on the book of Job, are telling of his beliefs. He had many gnostic beliefs, notably a twisted view of God and he wanted to add a fourth person to the Trinity, representing evil. It’s the whole duality that says ‘good needs evil, light needs darkness, yin needs yang’, and so forth. This concept of opposites has been carried over in the material for the Myers Briggs personality tests (MBTI), who’s founders openly credited Carl Jung as the originator of their principles and methodology.
At the time, I could not find any scriptural support for Jung’s classification of personality types as intrinsic ‘gifts’ that govern the way we behave in any given circumstance. In a way, the MBTI method seemed akin to horoscopes, star signs, fatalism, fortune cookies, blood type, tarot, and other vaguely worded tools for reading ones life.
So fast forward three years and I went to a conference/retreat where I was surprised to see the Myers Briggs personality test being promoted to evangelicals as a tool for ministry and worship. I was even more surprised when I raised the issue of its Jungian origins to other ministers and they defended it as an important Christian tool. Regardless of its questionable origins, they seemed to believe that the thought could be separated from the thinker.
My question is this:
At what point does Gnosticism stop being gnostic?
And for those who promote Myers Briggs, how can you justify adhering to a philosophy (of personality types) that is unashamedly connected to the teachings of an occultist (Carl Jung)?
Likewise, has anybody carried out any extensive research into the beliefs of Carl Jung, Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers?
I am not trying to be rude, I just can’t understand the double standard, as it appears that the same Reformed Christians who reject Carl Jung’s unbiblical views, with the same breath accept his teachings in the form of the Myers Briggs personality test. Some going as far to use it to write sermons, plan evangelism and categorise elders.