James P. Driscoll, PhD, is one of the foremost critics of Renaissance literature from a Jungian perspective. He is author of Identity in Shakespearean Drama and The Unfolding God of Jung and Milton.
Here he explains that the “problem of evil” evolved within the context of Christian theology. How is it possible for evil to exist in a world in which god is perfectly just, good, omniscient, and omnipotent? Milton’s great epic poem, Paradise Lost, is among the foremost works of English literature that endeavor to justify the Christian theological position. Driscoll notes, however, that literary critics and philosophers have not found the Christian theological position to be satisfactory. In particular, Carl Gustav Jung, the great Swiss psychiatrist, has been critical of the conventional Christian image of the deity. Great tragic literature suggests, on the other hand, that the human encounter with evil can catalyze a greater consciousness.
(Recorded on May 30, 2016)
Published on June 1, 2016