"Why did this happen to me? Why did God permit this terrible thing to happen?

Job, suffering


There are five possible answers to that question:

1."God has punished me for my sins." If you are aware of your sins and accept the event as punishment, then that satisfies you, that's your meaning. That's the "Jeremiah reaction." That's what Jeremiah told Israel: the reason this happened to you is that you're being punished for your sins.

2."I'm the victim of Satan, the Evil one, who is responsible." That's the dualistic or Manichean reaction, it sees the world as engaged in a conflict between two different deities: the Good and the Evil.

3."This catastrophe is actually good for me in some higher way I can't understand." I call that the Apostle Paul reaction. He said, "All things work together for good to them that love God"³⁹if you can see far enough. It usually takes some faith to assume that one.

4.The fourth possibility is that the suffering is caused by chance, because there is no transpersonal agency in human affairs. "God doesn't exist, or if he does exist he doesn't concern himself with man." That's the secular reaction. It doesn't offer much comfort but if you believe it you can harden yourself and adopt a stoic attitude.

5. The fifth possibility is the one Jung has discovered, namely, "God is an antinomy who isn't quite conscious of what he is doing." That's the Job reaction, Job who knows that his redeemer lives and who says to God, "Though you kill me, yet will I trust in you."40 Job also realizes that by having that awareness about God he is contributing to God's transformation. That's the Job reaction and it's one that never existed before in human thought until Jung interpreted it in that way. Suppose the universe consists of an omniscient mind containing total and absolute knowledge. But it is asleep. Slowly it stirs, stretches and starts to awaken. It begins to ask questions. What am I?but no answer comes. Then it thinks, I shall consult my fantasy, I shall do active imagination. With that, galaxies and solar systems spring into being. Then the fantasy focuses on earth. It becomes autonomous, and life appears. Now the Divine mind wants dialogue and man emerges to answer that need. The deity is straining for Self-knowledge, and the noblest representatives of mankind have the burden of that divine urgency imposed on them. Many are broken by the weight. A few survive and incorporate the fruits of their divine encounter in mighty works of religion and art and human knowledge. These then generate new ages and civilizations in the history of mankind. Slowly, as this process unfolds, God begins to learn who He is. Transformation of a God image, Edinger