Who is this God?

An idea that has forced itself

upon mankind in all parts of the earth and in all ages and
always in similar form: an otherworldly power which has us
at its mercy, which begets and kills�an image of all the
necessities and inevitablenesses of life. Since, psychologically
speaking, the God-image is a complex of ideas of an
archetypal nature, it must necessarily be regarded as
representing a certain sum of energy (libido) which appears in
projection.
29 In most of the existing religions it seems that the formative
factor which creates the attributes of divinity is the
father-imago, while in the older religions it was the
mother-imago. These attributes are omnipotence, a sternly
persecuting paternalism ruling through fear (Old Testament),
and a loving paternalism (New Testament). In certain pagan
conceptions of divinity the maternal element is strongly
emphasized, and there is also a wide development of the
animal or theriomorphic element.
30 (PI. IV a.) The God-concept is not only an image, but an
elemental force. The primitive power which Job�s Hymn of
Creation vindicates, absolute and inexorable, unjust and
superhuman, is a genuine and authentic attribute of the natural
power of instinct and fate which �leads us into life,� which
makes �all the world become guilty before God� (Romans 3:
19) and against which all struggle is in vain. Nothing remains
for mankind but to work in harmony with this will. To work
in harmony with the libido does not mean letting oneself drift
with it, for the psychic forces have no uniform direction, but
are often directly opposed to one another.

-Sw Augustyn

-Ludzie zapomnieli przeciwko czemu powstala religia.

Sw. Augustyn

[104] The men of that age were ripe for identification with
the word made flesh, for the founding of a community united
by
an idea,
55 in the name of which they could love one another and call
each other brothers.
56 The old idea of a �es?t??, of a mediator in whose name
new ways of love would be opened, became a fact, and with
that human society took an immense stride forward. This was
not the result of any speculative, sophisticated philosophy, but
of an elementary need in the great masses of humanity
vegetating in spiritual darkness. They were evidently driven
to it by the profoundest inner necessities, for humanity does
not thrive in a state of licentiousness.
57 The meaning of these cults�Christianity and
Mithraism�is clear: moral subjugation of the animal
instincts.
58 The spread of both these religions betrays something of
that feeling of redemption which animated their first
adherents, and which we can scarcely appreciate today. We
can hardly realize the whirlwinds of brutality and unchained
libido that roared through the streets of Imperial Rome. But
we would know that feeling again if
ever we understood, clearly and in all its consequences, what
is happening under our very eyes. The civilized man of today
seems very far from that. He has merely become neurotic. For
us the needs of the Christian community have gone by the
board; we no longer understand their meaning. We do not
even know against what it is meant to protect us.
59 For enlightened people, the need for religion is next door
to neurosis.
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