Answer to Job

Answer to Job

Author	Carl Gustav Jung
Original title	Antwort auf Hiob
Translator	R. F. C. Hull (1973)
Language	German
Genre	Analytical psychology, theology
Published	1952
Published in English	1954
Pages	169 (1952 ed.)

Answer to Job (German: Antwort auf Hiob) is a 1952 book by Carl Jung that addresses the significance of the Book of Job to the "divine drama" of Christianity. It argues that while he submitted to Yahweh's omnipotence, Job nevertheless proved to be more moral and conscious than God, who tormented him without justification under the influence of Satan. This scandal made it necessary for God to become united with man. Satan was banished from heaven and God incarnated as purely good, through a virgin birth, into the sinless redeemer Jesus Christ. Eventually, however, God will incarnate his evil side as well. For this to happen, the Holy Ghost left by Christ on earth has to enter "empirical", sinful human beings in whom the divine can be realized completely. Jung turns to the Book of Ezekiel, the Book of Enoch, and especially the Book of Revelation to consider how this may unfold. He suggests that the contemporary modern era, in which humanity possesses immense technological power, is significant to this second divine birth. He interprets the 1950 papal dogma of the Assumption of Mary as easing this transition towards completeness by re-emphasizing the feminine dimension of God.

The book was first published in English in 1954. It has received both criticism and admiration from commentators. Author Joyce Carol Oates and theologian John Shelby Spong, among others, highlighted it as a major work.