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Nietzsche and Jung drew upon the characters and roles of Dionysus and Apollo to create a framework for principles of human art and behaviour.
Apollo has traditionally been understood as the god of light, prophecy, music, justice/revenge. In art he is often depicted without a beard (an eternal youth) with a lyre and a cold, distant, far-off expression. Jung cast him in the role of the “introvert”.
Dionysus (or Bacchus – he goes by many names) is associated with wine, drunkenness, ecstasy, insanity, wildness, “the other”, tragedy and comedy. The great Attic tragedies (e.g. Aeschylus’ Agamemnon; Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex/Oidipous Tyrannos) were written to be performed as part of an annual festival celebrated in Athens in honour of Dionysus. He is traditionally depicted with a beard, carrying a thyrsus, surrounded by satyrs, maenads, wild animals, and accompanied by Silenus (perhaps riding his donkey). Jung cast him in the role of the “extrovert”.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysos#/media/File:Greek_vase_Dionysos_attica_520_bC.jpg
The categories of introvert and extrovert have been criticised over the years. People are now less comfortable applying them as blanket categories for a person’s psyche, but are generally happy to accept them in a more limited sense subject to context.
As humans, we are ultimately not self-sufficient, which creates problems for extreme introversion. The Doxology says, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow; praise Him all creatures here below…” No man can satisfy himself of himself. The gifts that belong to us come from God: He gives us life; He gives us the power of emotion and the power of choice. He gives us ears to hear and mouths to speak. He created the world (orbis non saeculum) that stimulates us and is the voice of inspiration that enables human art (granted human perversion can pollute that inspiration).
On the other hand, extreme extroversion empties man of himself and renders him nothing. Such nothingness is not possible. Man is, and therefore is something. God made us individuals – individuals who are morally responsible for their choices. Man is condemned on the basis of his rejection of the Messiah, but that rejection would be meaningless if man were not capable of (moral) choice, and choice would be meaningless without the property of individuality.
Outward-looking and inward-looking…the problem with Greek classifications is that they often fail to take account of what the Bible has to say about us. Dionysus says to us: “Repress me, and I’ll tear you apart.” This is the dynamic at work in Euripides’ Hippolytus: Hippolytus shuns the power and awe of Aphrodite (for which I read Dionysus in this argument), and embraces the celibacy of virgin Artemis (=Diana in the Roman pantheon). Eventually Aphrodite manages to have him destroyed (ironically, considering his name, by horses).
As Christians, we run the risk of becoming Hippolytus ourselves, depending on how we understand Paul, when he tells us not to fulfil the “lusts of the flesh.” A proper understanding of fasting and other related doctrines and disciplines is important for being truly whole people. On the one hand, if we pretend we have no emotion, then the revenge of Dionysus will be upon us; on the other hand, if we indulge in the Bacchanal, then we will destroy ourselves.
The Apollonian dynamic presents us with similar problems. The world of one’s own thoughts can be a terrible prison…especially where depression is concerned. I have often likened it to being inside a locked box. As long as you try to approach the problem as if you were locked inside the box, you will never get out. The answer is external to the box – the key isn’t inside.
This is such an important principle for the life of the congregation, be ye “pastor” or “layman”: we are all vulnerable. As SF has said recently and as we should all affirm, “I am my brother’s keeper.” If you are troubled, the first thing you can do is ask someone else you know and trust within your Christian family. They can provide the externality, the objectivity that you need to answer those troubling questions. It is other people who will remind you, explicitly or not, of the fact that you are not alone. Meditate on the Scripture: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Jesus has promised, and His word shall stand. We need each other, and God in His wisdom and mercy formed us as a community.
The problem of this post, of course, is that it is rather Apollonian…thinking about my own thoughts on the introversion/extroversion issue is an introverted act. But…the point of this is not to add value judgements to these principles. They are what they are, and they are a part of the human experience. The point is to caution about extremes and provoke some thought and encourage some externality.
Servus Fidelis said:
I think of extroverts as those who look inside themselves and do not like what they see and therefore retreat to the world and get lost in the world. Likewise, I see introverts as having looked at the world and did not like what they see so retreat within themselves.
Thereby, both extroverts and introverts, depending on their drive to get to Truth might have been both extrovert and introvert during their lives. Those who do not find balance and receive the ‘Good News’ which brings with it faith, hope and charity, will not find rest in either extreme. Instead they are restless, depressed and melancholy. Life becomes tragic.
But with Christ it is possible to find hope in the world and within ourselves as we act in the world as though this is but a opportunity to do good and to praise our Lord by spreading the Good News; loving Christ our King and loving our neighbors for love of Him. And within ourselves, we find that there is peace in prayer and great comfort to have been given the grace to speak with Him Whom we love and therefore find that even in solitude we are never alone.
Life, in the mind of man is a maze and we often get lost: our help is in the Lord.
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chalcedon451 said:
Good post Nicholas. We have to try to think with the mind of Christ. That is not easy. It seems to me even less easy when we are the measure of our selves.
We read Scripture by the light of our reason, and through prayer, but can these alone bring us to orthodoxy? In this there seems to me an introvertism – we look inward and we trust in our own reason. We should do that, but is it, of itself, sufficient? Do we not also need something from outside ourselves – the authority of a Church and its dogma?
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Servus Fidelis said:
Aye C, this is the transcendence of Christ that makes the introvert into a Mary and the extrovert a Martha . . . a parish priest or a desert father.
It is why something is amiss with our liturgy today. As the Mary’s need to experience community and the Martha’s need to experience the interior. With the grace of Christ both are able to do this and a balance is usually seen in the lives of both who have transcended this world, being transformed in Christ. The desert father teaches the people and the parish priest does good and tends to the day to day business of his sheep.
If our liturgy were balanced, there would be elements that take the worldly to the interior while providing a chance for those of a more interior nature to get involved with their neighbors and the world. Balance is only achieved through transcendence in Christ. We may then be content to offer ourselves up in Trustful surrender to Divine Providence.
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Ponder Anew said:
Speaking of which, Good discussion here about the liturgy’s role: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/415346/pope-francis-enters-his-third-year-scolding-introverts-nicholas-frankovich. I do expience the tension between the Marys and Mathias. I am of the mindset that one must be a good Mary prior to being a good Martha. Thanks.
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NEO said:
Thank you, an excellent article. I think you have a point about being a good Mary prior to a good Martha, as well.
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Ponder Anew said:
You’re welcome NEO
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Servus Fidelis said:
I think you will see that Martha types, like hard working saints like Francis of Assisi, developed the Mary interiority through work and a Teresa of Jesus ended up doing the Martha type work of reforming her order. I think it is just being transformed by Grace with an open open heart to Him. Just my guess.
Thanks for the link, I will check it out.
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Ponder Anew said:
You know, SF, your point is exactly why St. Francis and Aquinas are my patrons- Aquinas for navigating thru relativism and secularism and Francis for keeping me from being too cerebral, too academic, and actually doing the good works the Lord wills 🙂
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Servus Fidelis said:
Yes, and for me it was Francis and John of the cross. 🙂
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Ponder Anew said:
🙂 You’re welcome
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Servus Fidelis said:
Excellent, article, Ponder. Indeed, I see what your are referring to now via the article. Yes, some portion of the interior life must resonate before one goes out into any apostolate in the world. Sounds like the basis of the book Soul of the Apostolate in fact.
I’m just saying, that whether you are a cloistered nun or a Mother Teresa you will find much of both within them. After all, prayer and contemplation usually ends with a promise for an act of will.
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NEO said:
An excellent post, indeed. And yes, I think we do need the external structure, whether it be the Church and its dogma, the Scripture and it’s interpretation (that is the weakness I’ve always seen in Sola Scriptura it to easily turns into Solo Scriptura) or even the ‘code of honor’.
We are not (no matter how much we’d like to think we are) self-sufficient, we need the external reference, just as a navigator eventually needs Polaris, dead reckoning works-to a point but its errors tend to be cumalative.
But we also need the introspective side, I think this is where the compulsion of confession come from, we need to constantly re-evaluate ourselves as well. And after-action report, if you will.
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njb4725 said:
Thank you. Yes, I agree with you on the idea of a guide to help us understand Scripture – was it you who reminded me of the Ethiopian Eunuch and Philip? I suppose I just express those ideas in less formal terms. To me, an ecumenical council would need to have Peter,John, Paul, and Thomas present.
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chalcedon451 said:
Indeed – I agree.
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njb4725 said:
🙂 that would be a beautiful miracle of our times, to have a council that was respected by conservative Christians of all stripes. To have us confess a creed as one.
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NEO said:
Tom McEwen used to speak often of the Ethiopian saying, “I am the Ethiopian.” But I don’t know if you and he overlapped much. David M-W, have you heard anymore from him?
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David B. Monier-Williams said:
NEO, I’ve heard nothing.
Meantime, my announcement is that I’m going to put up, with C’s approval, from time to time, Illuminations from the new and fantastic St. John’s Bible with brief commentary.
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NEO said:
Thanks, David. I simply got so far behind that I missed lots last fall. I hope he is recovering.
And that news in quite wonderful, I’ll be glad to see them. 🙂
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Steve Brown said:
Good idea! Thanks.
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Steve Brown said:
“Do we not also need something from outside ourselves – the authority of a Church and its dogma?” Precisely! All of humanity does. Can we read all of the books, listen to all of the lectures, hear all of the preaching and homilies of the last 2000 years? No. We all need the authority given to the Catholic Church by our Lord Jesus Christ. This is for all who will listen.
C, hope you are feeling better.
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Bosco the Great said:
thank you Mary, for the authority given to the catholic church. Gods true one holy blameless pure and white apostolic universal, did I say Holy? Unerring infallible godly innocent pure and white church.
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