Jungian Archetypes and the Personality of Jesus in the Synoptics

Abstract

The Jungian archetypes anima and animus are used as a tool for studying the personality of Jesus. To carry out this analysis, the synoptic Gospels were examined and passages about Jesus were rated as exhibiting either the animus or the anima archetypes. Each story was also classified as one of five literary types. Significant correlations were found between literary and archetypal classifications. No significant difference was found overall between the number of animus and anima accounts of the portrayal of Jesus in the synoptics by any combination of authors. Only in those stories exclusive to Matthew did animus traits predominate significantly. This finding suggests that Jesus demonstrated equally developed anima and animus archetypes.

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