The Other Side of Christmas
Sunday, December 8th, 2013
4 pm ~ 6 pm
Presented by
Guilford Dudley, PhD
The Incarnation, at the core of the Christian mythos and message, can be celebrated joyfully at Christmas as a union of opposites between human and divine, but one that also ennobles us with the burden of what Carl Jung calls “the divine problem”: the paradox of divine wrath and love, destruction and renewal. As Jung puts it, “Christ has shown how everyone will be crucified upon his destiny,” a concept that includes shouldering the opposites in one’s psyche. At the collective level, that cross includes destructive impulses that have become incarnate in the reckless exploitation of the earth for oil and profit. The threat of global catastrophe from irreversible global warming coexists (paradoxically) with love for the very children and grandchildren who will inherit our planet.
Guilford Dudley, PhD, is a Jungian analyst practicing in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is active in leading programs for the C.G. Jung Institute of New Mexico, where he is a member. He was a professor in the history of religions, Dean of Students at the University of Pennsylvania, and an ordained Presbyterian minister, before becoming a Jungian analyst. He is the author of two books and is completing a manuscript for a memoir.