We’ve been taught through sound theological arguments. Our apologetics are solid. Our arguments for our methodologies are locked shut. Hermeneutic. Exegesis. Academic writing. Good job, us. But there is an undercurrent in Christianity right now that is swaying the tide back to an ancient way. Back to Spirit. Let’s not forget our Truth, with a capital T. But let’s not forget that one of the clearest descriptors of God in the New Testament is John 4, God is Spirit.
And maybe, like me, you’ve been hearing God whisper something to you that sounds a lot like surrender. We are being asked to surrender our minds to His loving grasp, and to wander the high school hallways again, back to our less-comfortable notions about what it means to worship a God who is Spirit.
Where We Are in this Journey
We are starting a new article arc this week: ten weeks of foundational insights into contemplative Christianity and what, in the world, it has to do with Carl Jung’s psychology.
This week, we are talking about the soul and what the soul is starved of, which I believe is a truly human grasp of how our souls commune with God. We are going to look at the word “numinous” and how that word describes a God encounter in ways that often supersede words.
The next ten weeks will look at the soul in psychological and contemplative ways to understand how it speaks, how it communes with God, and how it is formed. By the end, you will feel at rest in your souls. And that, we need in spades, right now.
Carl Jung and the Soul
In 1917, a German theologian named Rudolf Otto coined the term “numinous” from Latin to refer to God as something beyond what our descriptive language can provide. It’s the feeling of awe, wonder, the old Bible translation words like “fearful” and “awesome.” Maybe it’s similar to word holy, which many translate as meaning “other” just radically different. Carl Jung adopted the phrase "numinous" to describe the symbolic associations with God that many had in their dreams, imaginations, visions, and/or waking synchronicities.
This word does something to me, and maybe to you too, and it reminds me that God isn’t just mental or intellectual knowledge. And I often need that reminder. God wants to encounter us in numinous ways, but we rarely have containers to do that. This 10-week series introduces those containers.
My Experience with a Numinous Dream
A few years ago, I had a dream.
It was night, and I was walking onto a dock that jutted out into a still lake. I stood at the edge of that dock and looked into the water below. From the depths of the water, I saw something slowly emerge. It was larger than any creature I had ever seen, and its eye – its enormous eye - was all that I could see. The eye looked up at me, and that feeling of numinosity came over me. I knew that this creature knew me. That I was known by it, and that it loved me. But at the same time, its sheer size, antiquity, and strangeness were awe-inspiring and terrifying in feeling.
I woke up in total peace, but in an overwhelming sense of wonder. I knew I had encountered God as the Ancient of Days in that dream.
That night, as I lay in bed. I didn’t use my mind. I didn’t think. Instead, I let the feeling of awe wash over me, over and again. The dream was an invitation to wonder and be filled with awe.
These moments are not just rare, they’re absolutely transforming. If we let them be. We just don’t always know how to name these types of experiences, but we should let ourselves exist in the space of feeling His holiness – His otherness – and His ability to transform us vitally over and over again.
If you are interested in going deeper than just pure intellectualism with God, then I invite you to our paid Substack tier at $12/month. There, I teach you ancient contemplative Christian exercises that draw on Carl Jung’s psychology to foster wholeness of soul, mind, and body.
In the following article for paid subscribers, I will be showing:
A guided practice of the Jesus Prayer, breath by breath, beginning with your body
Journaling questions to help you notice what the prayer released in your emotions and your body
How to write down the symbols, dreams, and memories that surface, and how to discern what is and isn’t from God
A simple habit tracker for trying the practice every day this week