In Reflections of a Passerby: Jesus, Jung, and the Power of Choice, Eleanor Norris, PhD, takes us along on her search for meaning through the study of the life of Jesus—the Christian myth. Was Jesus solely human or solely divine? Was he the symbol of the Self, as C.G. Jung proposed?
Through Norris’s personal journey, we’re introduced to Jungian perspectives and in-depth study of the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, weaving together critical thinking, imagination, and somatic knowing, challenging us to understand her and our own assumptions and contributing to each of our journeys of individuation and awakening consciousness.
Part One – The Christian Myth: C. G. Jung and Elizabeth Boyden Howes
Chapter 1 – Jung’s Vision of Christianity
Chapter 2 – Other Jungian Views on Christianity
Chapter 3 – Elizabeth Howes’s Search for the Historical Jesus
Chapter 4 – Was There a Historical Jesus?
Part Two – The Guild Seminars
Chapter 5 – My First Seminar
Chapter 6 –The Work of Discerning
Chapter 7 – Meeting the Three
Chapter 8 – Into the Depths
Chapter 9 – Ministry and Miracles
Chapter 10 – Who Forgives? What Heals?
Chapter 11 – Myth or History: Finding Great Truths
Chapter 12 – Choosing Life
Chapter 13 – The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like …
Chapter 14 – Gathering Strands
Chapter 15 – Jesus’s Final Days
Chapter 16 – The Empty Tomb
Chapter 17 – The Journey Onward
Acknowledgments
Permissions
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Guild for Psychological Studies
About the Author
“Eleanor Norris is a brave woman. When the traditional Christian story about Jesus ceased to satisfy her spiritual longing, there was still something about Jesus that called her. In Reflections of a Passerby, she shares her studies and practices, her deep looking and ardent wrestling with concepts, archetypes, and assumptions, leading her—and us—to a new vision of the Jesus story. Dr. Norris’s journey through texts and myths into her own depths will nourish your soul and open your eyes afresh.”
— Hal Childs, PhD, author of God’s Autopsy and the Living Truth of Soul:
Eleanor Norris’s spiritual journey took her from Congregationalism to agnosticism to Roman Catholicism to Hindu and Buddhist practice before discovering the Guild for Psychological Studies’ core seminar based on the text, Records of the Life of Jesus. In 2001, she entered Pacifica Graduate Institute to study mythology from the perspective of Jung, and was awarded her PhD in 2008. A native Californian, the author lives in retirement in Davis, California.
