Evil: The Shadow Side of Reality

John A. Sanford is a first rank scholar with an ability to simplify complex ideas and show they relate to real life. He is also been a profilic writter with many excellent books to his credit, especially books that relate or reinterpret Christianity through the lens of Jungian Psychology. I work in the psychology field myself and I am extremely impressed with this author's work. His writing is straightforward, balanced, impartial, open, curious and often intimate. This is a man who has more than academic knowledge and a deep intellectual understanding of Christianity. While I acknowledge that this author is best-of-breed, as with any other, I don't worship him or his opinions. However, he does what any good author does in this area, provoke meaningful questions, ignite the imagination and present well argued ways of looking at things that are often novel without imposing his beliefs on anyone else. This look at EVIL while more psychological than religious in the conventional sense of the word is definitely a worthwhile read. Mr. Sanford enters this mysterious territory with humility and deep respect for all we don't know and may never know completely. If the question of EVIL to you is interesting, you will enjoy this book no matter what your level of education, understanding of psychology, etc. A nice lighter read to go along with it is When Bad Things Happen to Good People. You may also find Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction a very helpful in-depth reference, if you want to have a deeper understanding of Jung.

Like all of John Sanford's books, this one combines a Jungian approach with a Christian one ... but not the cut-and-dried, live-by-rote Christianity that shuts down thought & exploration. Sanford isn't interested in comfirming the mindset (or rut) of the unquestioning & self-satisfied Christian. He calls for a living faith, one which examines & challenges the inner being of the individual. Here he delves into the question of Evil: what is it, really? And how do we cope with it? Refusing to take the easy route of placing it all Out There Somewhere, he explains the need to face the darkness within ourselves -- and more, to accept it as part of ourselves, to learn from it, to integrate it into our lives & so lessen its power over us. This won't be a book for those who believe in safety, or in living by dogma & authority. It places the responsibility for understanding Evil & coming to terms with it squarely in our hands alone. It requires that we question what we've been taught, what we've believed, in order to come to a living, personally meaningful truth. For those willing to walk this more difficult path, the rewards will be great. Highly recommended!

This is one of the best books I have ever read and although the subject matter seems heavy, Sanford presents it in a light manner.I found this book compelling. It was hard to put it down. It really gets into the idea of the shadow in a way I have not seen before.I whole-heartedly recommend this book!

John Sanford brilliantly crafts a study on the nature of evil in our world. Instead of being preachy and trite, he make valuable points about the importance of understanding the origins of evil in a detached manner.I feel the approach to understanding evil is a necessary and healthy one. We must all see our shadow side and understand that evil in not something we need fear but attempt to understand and analyze.Powerful and helpful, Sanford's ideas are conveyed in a basic yet deep manner. I highly recommend this book.It will help the reader to understand others and themselves and the evil which is always with us in our world.

We today prefer "to believe that the evils of our time somehow do not exist in the human soul...but have political or economic causes, and could be eliminated by a different political system, more education, the correct psychological conditioning, or one more war to wipe out the enemy..." (p. 15). So begins Sanford's remarkable endeavor to explain how denial of negative feelings and attributes can lead to the projection of "villains out there." Explaining Jungian theory in relation to Christian belief is a difficult job (he points out that St. Paul urged people to deny their shadows), but Sanford mostly manages it. The section on theories and theologies of evil was tough going at times, but the chapter that used the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as an illustration made it all worthwhile. This is a remarkable book on a difficult topic.