Progressives sometimes find religion and religious people to be an enigma - a black box shrouded in mystery and born of irrational thinking. So, what follows is a short attempt to add some explanation of how religion can be of value in people’s lives by examining the concept of symbolism. But the subject of meaning in life is not just of concern to the religious individual. Meaning or the lack of it is just as important for secular people as it is for the religious ones. And symbols whether used consciously or unconsciously are a key element of finding and having meaning and purpose in life.
Paul Tillich, the 20th century Protestant theologian, defined a symbol as something that points beyond itself. Symbols are unique mental objects which have no fixed referents. They can be contrasted with signs which have fixed meanings. Symbols are described as layered, multi-valent, multi-dimensional, or multi-vocal (Victor Turner's term). Their personal meanings and interpretations evolve to reflect the evolution of the individual, and the meanings of cultural symbols that are shared evolve as the culture changes.
Symbols are complex because they have different meanings that change as they are explored. The figure of Christ has meant different things to different people at different times. For instance, Christ was characterized as a warrior during the Crusades going into battle to defeat the unbelievers. In the early 20th century, he was characterized as a businessman and the perfect salesman and marketer, a union organizer and a friend of the working man during the rise of unions, and a strong athlete who could fast and control his desires through physical and mental discipline as preachers focused on the masculine virtues of Christ.
Jesus is both the ideal capitalist and socialist depending on differing interpretations.
These few examples illustrate how broadly the symbol of Christ has been interpreted over time. There are multiple other interpretations of the identity of Christ throughout the history of Christianity that would likely be a shock to contemporary Christians.
Symbolic statements such as "Christ is the Light of the World", "In the beginning was the Word", and the necessity of having faith the size of a mustard seed also have different possible meanings and interpretations.
Literal interpretation of such statements renders them absurd, and metaphor is a dangerous slippery slope that threatens those who believe the Bible or other holy book must be literally true. The fear of the ambiguity associated with symbolic interpretation and the demand for a literal interpretation has drained much of the vitality from modern Christianity. In my opinion, the highly secular goals of Christian nationalism and the desire for its cultural dominance have been one response to this loss of the power of symbols.
Symbols are dynamic as they grow and reinvent themselves.
Symbols can be looked at as having a spatial dimension. As one layer of meaning is peeled away or shed, another comes into view from behind the first one. Symbols also have a volume dimension. They are receptacles that "hold" meaning and power for the individual. The more power they hold, the more they become holy and a focus for prayer and contemplation or a basis for social action and renewal.
As they gain power, they provide motivation and inspiration for both religious and secular individuals and groups.
Religions can be looked as systems of symbols. Whole cultures evolve as newer symbol systems replace older ones. No one believes in the Greek or Babylonian gods anymore. They are part of dead symbol systems (and therefore dead religions).
Many of the symbols from mainstream religions such as Christianity and Buddhism derive from religious narratives describing the activities of founders of these religions and their disciples. For instance, the life of Christ is turned into a set of symbols in the Catholic Church's stations of the cross, which distill the major events in the life of Christ into a set of fourteen images. The Buddha's life is also captured in a set of images documenting his adventures in some Tibetan Thangkas, and the incarnations of the god Vishnu appear in depictions of the "ten avatars" in Hinduism.
But in a more secular context, the actions of heroes in ancient and modern mythology (film superheroes) can also serve as inspiration to people living today.
Symbols demonstrate the power of myth (stories that give our lives meaning and direction) in showing us how to live and confront the challenges of everyday existence.
A charged symbol has power and is alive with meaning. Symbols may be charged spontaneously and have power when first encountered. This often happens in religious conversion where an individual finds him or herself irresistibly attracted to a religious figure or symbol system and converts to a new religion. Symbols may also become charged as an individual uses them in prayer and meditation and directs attention and positive emotion towards them as part of a spiritual discipline or search.
For secular or scientifically oriented people, or those who find their existing religion increasingly less relevant, the emergence of a living symbol can sometimes occur after a period of meaninglessness where the outer world appears uninteresting or worthless and offers no satisfaction or joy. Western religious or secular people such as the Existentialist thinker Jean-Paul Sartre, Saint John of the Cross, and Mother Teresa had periods of alienation and struggle where they wandered in a kind of psychological desert cut off from God or lost in confusion sometimes without meaning or direction in life.
Using a more secular example of how living symbols can function, the psychologist Carl Jung describes how the person may enter the unconscious mind and experience pain and confusion prior to a psychological death of the old self which was fragmented by trauma. If the person is lucky, a (religious or mythical) symbol will emerge that brings about a spiritual and psychological rebirth. This brings about integration of the personality where the parts of the self which were split off or are at war are reclaimed and the person finds wholeness, meaning, wisdom, and spiritual depth.
There are many descriptions of "the dark night of the soul", of Christ visiting hell for three days and emerging in a "glorified body" as a reborn spiritual man (or god), or shamanic descent into the underworld with the person being devoured by monsters and then being reborn as a shaman who can guide and heal others. Most of these describe the emergence of powerful symbols sometimes in the form of revelations that renew and spiritualize the person but here the emergence of a living symbol that causes a form of spiritual salvation comes after much pain, darkness, and struggle.
If a living symbol does not spontaneously emerge and provide meaning to reorganize the personality, the person may descend into the unconscious and become psychotic and incapable of acting in the world. This is what Freud called the primary process where the irrational thinking and chaos of the Id or instinctual self becomes primary and the ego as the center of the personality largely ceases to function. The external world recedes as the internal world takes over and overwhelms the person with negative emotions, conflict, and desire.
So, living symbols can be discovered during religious conversion experience, created and nurtured through prayer, reading, and meditation, or emerge after a period of pain, alienation, wandering, and confusion so the person may have a spiritual, artistic, or ethical rebirth. People who consciously build and empower symbols and then carry them into the inner world to use them to gain access to a divine reality represent but one way, the mystical way, to relate to living symbols. For the religious person, the act of contemplating scripture and religious imagery, and seeking to understand their various layers of symbolic meaning represents another method of empowering and using sacred symbols.
But clinging to a literal interpretation tends to devalue and avoid this contemplative process.
Living symbols can make the different between choosing life and succumbing to death. The existence of powerful living symbols can allow the person to endure much hardship and suffering. Dr. Margaret Coberly notes how concentration camp survivor Victor Frankl recognized the ability of a certain kind of prisoner to use visualization and the "loving contemplation of the image he carries" to overcome the depression that resulted from witnessing the brutality of a Nazi World War II concentration camp.
Living symbols can also make the dying process easier and less painful. As a Hospice nurse, Coberly writes that those facing death can find peace and healing through to contemplation of symbols or sacred images: "Somehow, seeing a vision in the mind and reinforcing it with repetition brings it to life." (Sacred Passage, Shambhala Publishers, Boston and London, 2002, P. 37).
In addition to religious people, a minority of people who are interested in more metaphysical systems such as astrology, Tarot, and the I Ching also consciously use symbols to understand their identity (using astrological charts), the cosmic and material forces that are acting on them in the present, and what the future holds (divination). Those interested in the lives of saints, the history of world religions, and role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragon are also more sensitive to symbols, their meanings, and their uses.
But for more steadfast secular people, much of this discussion will seem opaque and even nonsensical. Some of these people with little sensitivity to symbolism will likely continue to live in a world where a significant portion of the population (religious people, etc.) is alien to them and worthy of rejection as irrational, childish, confused, mentally disturbed, or evil.
Perhaps the discussion of symbolism will give a little insight into how religion and mythology can be valuable and even essential in the lives of both secular and religious people living today.
