The Image of God passed through six major stages over time. This slide presentation presents the development.

1. The Evolution of God
How the understanding of
God changed over time.

2. Let me first introduce myself offering you a
flower, a virtual orchid.
I’m Roberto and
I believe that our objective in life is to be happy,
and that Spirituality and Jungian psychology,
my main areas of interest, can help us in this
search for happiness.
Roberto Lima Netto, Ph.D.
Stanford University

3. God has changed over time. Not the
real God, the major force that created
the Big-Bang, or, if you prefer, the God
who created the world in six days as
told in Genesis. This Major Force is
unknowable, well above human
thinking. But the Image of God we
hold inside our psyche evolved
through the centuries.

4. Through human history we
can detect six major stages
in the evolution of the God-
image.

5. The first phase– Animism – was
present during the hunting and
gathering phase of civilization. Our
primitive ancestors saw spirits
everywhere: animals, trees,
mountains rivers, stones.

6. A second period – Matriarchy –
came when agriculture was
discovered. The nourishing
earth, responsible for the crops
– the Great Mother– was the
deity.

7. A third period –Polytheism – came
with the development of the cities and
the beginning of wars. The masculine
element grew in importance and
humanity turned to a polytheism
dominated by male Gods. Of special
notice for the Western Civilization are
the Greek Gods, ruled by Zeus.

8. A fourth period – Tribal
Monotheism – started, at least in
the Western world, with the
Hebrews. Out of the many deities
that populated the near Middle
East, Yahweh, the God of one tribe
of nomads came forth.

9. The fifth period – Universal
Monotheism.
Christianity was the result of the
universalizing of the Hebrew
religion, and dominated the
Western world for the last twenty
centuries.

10. The major difference of Yahweh
and Jesus is that the first was
complete, encompassing good and
evil. A better way of expressing this
idea is to say that Yahweh was
above good and evil. He did not
dwell in the duality, but in the
unicity.

11. The Christian religion, with Christ
as an exclusively good God, called
forth the demon. In the duality we
live, there is no cold without hot,
no light without darkness, no good
without evil.

12. Clement of Rome, one of the first
fathers of the church is quoted
saying that God governs the world
with Christ on the right hand and
Satan on the left.

13. As a consequence, Satan
appears four times in the
Old Testament and sixty-six
in the New Testament.

14. The sixth period – Individuation - is
dawning in the world with the
development of individualism in
human beings. More and more people
are distancing themselves from what
we could call the herd-complex and
looking for their individual ways to
search for happiness and the
fulfillment of their lives.

15. The problem is that the Christian
myth that sustained Western
Civilization for two thousand years
is losing its attraction. Its symbols
are getting old and are not being
renewed.

16. As a result, civilization is passing
through a chaotic stage. Human
beings are becoming more and
more materialists, and I venture to
say that the God that rules the
world today is money.

17. The Arthurian Myth is a relatively
new myth, that started to spread in
the Western world in the XII
century, although it has ancient
roots in the Celtic and Irish myths.

18. When Parsifal and the knights of
the round table went in their
search for the Grail, they were
instructed to follow an individual
path, one that had never been
treaded. It was considered
shameful to choose an already
tried route.

19. This advice matches perfectly with
Jungian psychology. For Jung, each
person has to choose his exclusive
path in his journey of
individuation.

20. Jung suggested that we live a
symbolic life, using his method
of Active Imagination to
dialogue with the personalities
inside our psyches.

21. How to live a spiritual life?
A symbolic life?
To avoid repeating myself, I will
suggest that you visit my site.
www.HappinessAcademyOnline.org

22. I also suggest that you read the
excellent book by Lionel Corbett
“Psyche and the Sacred”

23. I wish you HAPPINESS.
Thanks for your time and attention.
Roberto Lima Netto
www.HappinessAcademyOnline.org.