Burn the Business Plan - The Monday Morning Memo

“From Jung’s perspective, the Bible deals with issues that cannot be reduced to simple formulas, or slogans, or on-the-run question-and-answer catechesis. Its truths cannot be taken as a quick vaccination, once and for all. The issues scripture deals with are far less manageable; at best they can be hinted at. And because it speaks of such realities, it is driven, as Jung would believe, to speak in stories, figures, and symbols. The etymology of the word symbol in fact suggests this.

The word derives from two Greek roots, the prefix sym, which means ‘together,’ and the verb ballein (whence the English word ‘ballistics’) which means ‘to throw.’ Thus a symbol ‘throws’ two things ‘together,’ a subject and the image that seems best equipped to capture its meaning.

From Jung’s standpoint, symbols are the natural language of the soul. We produce symbols spontaneously in our dreams. We produce images and symbols in our everyday speech. From our private doodling to our public art, whether in business advertisements, in scientific journals, in religion and the arts, symbols surface to say what logic and plain speech cannot convey, at least not economically. Furthermore, Jung would say, all of us respond natively to symbols and we all know intuitively how to catch their meaning.”

- Jung and the Bible, Wayne G. Rollins (1983) Chapter 4

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