From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



The echo of these old traditions is heard elsewhere. It 

 is not without profound surprise that we find Manichean 

 ideas in minds imbued with Christian tradition. Flournoy 1 

 who has not hesitated to put forward such ideas, 

 endeavours to avoid the inevitable objections to them 

 by a subterfuge: 



* If God exists He has been from the beginning 

 in conflict with some independent Principle whence 

 Evil is derived. He is therefore not the Absolute, 

 the All-powerful, the omnipotent Creator of this 

 universe, and we revert inevitably to the ancient 

 Manichean doctrine. I admit that I am not enough 

 of a theologian or of a philosopher to clear up the 

 mystery! But this, perhaps, would not be the first 

 time that a heresy condemned by the Councils might 

 be found to have reason on its side, and to be more 

 conformable to the thought of Christ than received 

 tradition. However that may be, the notion of a 

 God, limited, no doubt, but entirely good, cease- 

 lessly working to bring the greatest possible good 

 out of evils which He has not created, and striving 

 to establish His reign of Love in primeval chaos 

 (which would be the cause and the last word on 

 evolution); and this notion, I say, which seems to 

 me to be the inference from the whole life of Jesus, 

 appears infinitely more generous than the current 

 concept of a vindictive God awarding death, visiting 

 the sins of the fathers on the children, and heaping 

 on His creatures (and by choice on the best of 

 them) trials for which it is their duty to thank Him ! ' 



Is there any need to discuss Manicheism or 

 neo-Manicheism any further ? Evidently not. It is 

 sufficient to point out that both are ineffectual and 

 complicated, and therefore contrary to all scientific or 

 philosophical method. 



1 Flournoy : Le Gtnie Religieux. 

 155 



