In Carl Jung and the Gnostic Reconciliation of Gender Opposites

Precise
In Carl Jung and the Gnostic Reconciliation of Gender Opposites
the Rev Ed Hird,
Anglican Coalition in Canada rector at St Simon’s in North Vancouver, BC, offers an
extensive analysis of the teaching of psychoanalyst Carl Jung, whose thinking has had a
pervasive influence on the worldview of many in western society. Rev Hird argues that
Jung’s teaching has been detrimental both to society and to the Church, and that
revisionists in the Anglican Church have been profoundly influenced by Jung. He says:
“So many current theological emphases in today’s church can be traced directly back to
Carl Jung.”
Rev Hird shows that Jung’s teaching was rooted in his fascination with the occult,
mysticism and Hinduism and the fruit of his teaching has been the promotion of
unbridled sexual expression, a blurring of genders, relativism and pantheism.
“Jung’s direct and indirect impact on mainstream Christianity - and thus on
Western culture, has been incalculable. It is no exaggeration to say that the
theological positions of most mainstream denominations in their approach to
pastoral care, as well as in their doctrines and liturgy - have become more or
less identical with Jung’s psychological/symbolic theology.”
– Jeffrey Satinover, MD, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth
Source: www3.telus.net/st_simons/CarlJungPaper.pdf
Carl Jung and the Gnostic Reconciliation of Gender Opposites
By the Rev Ed Hird, Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver,
ACiC/AMiA (Anglican Church in North America)
Leanne Payne wrote an unforgettable book in 1995 entitled ‘Crisis in Masculinity’. We
live in an age where equality is equated with sameness, where men and women are
deeply confused about their gender identity, about what really is authentic male and
authentic female. I believe that this Gnostic Reconciliation of Gender Opposites, this
gender-blending about authentic maleness and femaleness, is the direct result of our
culture’s embracing of the Jungian agenda.
In 1991, I had the wonderful privilege of attending the Episcopal Renewal
Ministries(ERM) Leadership Training Institute (LTI) in Evergreen, Colorado. Following
that, I encouraged Anglican Renewal Ministries Canada to endorse the LTI approach,
including the use of the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Temperament Indicator). However, as I
later listened to tapes by Leanne Payne and Dr. Jeffrey Satinover1, I rethought the
Jungian nature of the MBTI, writing a report entitled Carl Jung, Neo-gnosticism, and the
MBTI. After much prayer and reflection, ARM Canada decided unanimously in
November 1997 to no longer use the MBTI in the Clergy and Lay Leadership Training
Institutes.
Over two and a half million people are ‘initiated’ each year into the MBTI process. 2 It is
now the most extensively used personality instrument in history. 3 There is even an
MBTI version for children, called the MMTIC (Murphy-Meisgeier Type Indicator for
Children)4, and a simplified adult MBTI-like tool for the general public, known as the