The Unfolding God of Jung and Milton
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge Literature in English, British Isles English Language and Literature 2014 The Unfolding God of Jung and Milton James P. Driscoll Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Driscoll, James P., "The Unfolding God of Jung and Milton" (2014). Literature in English, British Isles. 104. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_british_isles/104 Studies in the English Renaissance JOHN T. SHAWCROSS Editor This page intentionally left blank The Unfolding God of Jung and Milton JAMES P. DRISCOLL THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Copyright © 1993 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine College, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Club, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. Editorial and Sales Offices: Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Driscoll, James P., 1946- The Unfolding God of Jung and Milton I James P. Driscoll. p. em. -(Studies in the English Renaissance) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8131-6017-7 1. Milton, John, 1608-1674-Religion. 2. Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), 1875-1961. 3. Archetype (Psychology) in literature. 4. Psychoanalysis and literature. 5. God-History of doctrines. 6. God in literature. I. Title. II. Series. PR3592.G6D75 1993 821'.4-dc20 92-21769 This book is printed on recycled acid-free paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. 8 Dedicated to the memory of my mother, PHYLLIS DRISCOLL, and of my friend, DAVE OLSON This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix 1 Something of Graver Import 1 2 The Shadow of God 38 3 Decisive Identity 85 4 Yahweh Agonistes 151 Glossary 176 Notes 198 Index 231 This page intentionally left blank Preface Books have for progenitors other books. The Unfolding God of lung and Milton has for its dominant progenitor C. G. Jung's Answer to lob. Answer to Job mounted a challenge to orthodox dogmas about Godhead as radical as Freud's challenge to Victorian pieties about sex. Now commonplace, Freud's theories have lost their initial shock value. Not so Jung's ideas on Godhead: still profoundly unsettling, they are alternately disregarded, misconstrued, and opposed with fervor. Approaching scriptural myth in an iconoclastic spirit, Jung ignored scholarly tact along with those historical backgrounds sectarian peda gogues use to obfuscate embarrassing problems. His objective was to uncover the psychological motives and philosophical ideas that power the basic myths ordinary Christians believe. A ready, easy, and safe Jungian treatment of Godhead in Milton's major poems would enumerate and tactfully comment upon archetypes and mythic patterns. But that would betray the spirit and objective of Jung and do nothing to account for the difficulties moderns experience with Milton. I shall avoid the ready, easy, and safe way. My interpretations will hold true to Jung even where a Jungian stance controverts established doctrine and disputes standard readings. Accordingly, those ill-prepared to entertain fundamental rethinking of sacred verities may spare themselves some anguish by returning to the shelf unread both Answer to Job and The Unfolding God oflung and Milton. Those ready to reject religious orthodoxy may nonetheless balk at Jung's rejecting science as a modern, secular orthodoxy. For Jung experimental science is a set of tools generated by the larger psyche whose study forms the task of psychology. We cannot, Jung held, explain all phenomena of the larger psyche with the limited tools of science. Something more encompassing is needed to deal with the engendering whole: Jung pro posed the theory of archetypes. While there is scientific evidence for the archetypes, those who seek it will have to look elsewhere. In support of using archetypes I offer two nonscientific arguments, one analogical, the other pragmatic. First, it can be observed that archetypes are like gravity: no one has ever isolated gravity, we only perceive that objects fall and planets follow their orbits- X Preface the theory of gravity has been formulated to account for these patterns in natural phenomena. Similarly, the theory of archetypes has been formu lated to account for patterns in psychic phenomena. The pragmatic argu ment is simply that, valid or not, Jungian psychology, like Freudianism, Marxian thought, and orthodox Christian doctrine, enjoys wide influence. Jungian psychology cannot match the sway of the others, but its influence is growing, nourished by cultural change and new discoveries in physics, biology, linguistics, anthropology, and psychology. Jung deserves to be understood. Whether and to what extent he deserves belief must remain a personal decision. Some will acknowledge the impact of Jung's theories but object to applying modern theories to Milton. There is no reason to apply modern theories to Milton if we do not care whether Milton remains alive. How ever, if we wish him to be more than a historical artifact, we must do more than just study him against the background of his time. We must rein terpret him in light of the germane thought of our own age. Among the influential thinkers of our century, Jung is the most significant one hailing from Protestant origins. Milton is undoubtedly the foremost Protestant poet. Both men began with an individualistic Protes tant approach to certain fundamental questions: the relationship of man to God, the unfolding nature of Godhead, the meaning of the Trinity, the role of Satan and evil, and the function of the sexes. Both men's religious outlooks were shaped by personal responses to God the Father, albeit those responses stand quite opposed. Both developed their own views of the Son and of Adam and Eve, and both were fascinated by Satan in his protean manifestations. Moreover, since to be free is to be conscious and to be conscious for Jung is to be free, freedom and consciousness, the signal values of Milton and Jung, are entwined. Thus, it would seem, among the greats of our age Jung has unique potential to illumine Milton. Illumination often works both ways. That is the case here where the light Jung sheds on Milton's religious concerns reflects back to illumine those same concerns in Jung. The result can be new insight into Christianity itself. Not only do they come from the same general tradition with similar concerns, Jung and Milton the poet share a basic approach to those concerns: imaginative amplification. Jung held that we do not directly know archetypes; we apprehend them indirectly through images, myths, and symbols. He sought to enhance our awareness of the archetypes by imaginatively amplifying images, myths, and symbols. Visionary poets also amplify images, myths, and symbols. And, what is crucial, a culture's supreme visionary poets-the writer of Job, Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Milton for instance-amplify images, myths, and symbols to give us glimpses, or epiphanies, of their culture's prime archetypes or gods. Preface xi Let me turn to the critic's goal, archetypal meaning. Just as a Mobius strip has only one side, the archetype and its meaning are inseparable, one ever continuous with the other. Since archetypes cannot be directly known, archetypal meaning is less specific and more mysterious than intended meaning. In addition, it compensates for the imbalanced con scious values of the artist and his culture-such is the fundamental principle of authentic Jungian criticism. Conventional critics who make authorial intentions and cultural values their touchstones for meaning will find Jungian criticism often frustrating and at times downright maddening. "You're wrong," they'll cry, "Milton could never have intended that archetype to mean what you say it means." To which I must respond, "It wouldn't be an archetype if it obeyed Milton's conscious intentions." Visionary poetry is born of the strange, irregular interplay of intentions, archetypes, and imagination. And not only do archetypes and imagination go their own ways subtly defying intention, that is their proper function. Here many critics may wish to join their orthodox religious and scientific brethren returning this book to the shelf. For those remaining readers, few but undaunted, I offer two additional caveats, the first about the book's peculiar structure. So autonomous are its four main chapters, the first written in draft ten years prior to the others, they often more resemble distinct treatises sharing common topics than parts of a unified whole. The loose structure, however, reflects an overall method. With Jung's principle of imaginative amplification of archetypes and the idea of process as my guides, I have found in the spiral an image for my method and structure. The opening chapter introduces the basic critical issues, philosophical concepts, and archetypal themes