The Bible is not a literal text but rather a psychological work. Its purpose is to bypass the literal dualistic outer mind or our acquired personality so as to enable us to experience its truths internally. If you don't question, you lose its value.The question of the supernatural is the main issue which I am addressing. Where does reason or faith come in? Part of the problem which I have with the idea of faith is that to abandon reason in thinking about the Biblical texts seems like philosophical suicide. So, I am asking how much can be interpreted literally or symbolically?
I know you like Carl Jung so this excerpt from Maurice Nicoll's book "The New Man" should resonate. It describes Jesus use of parables.
A lot of modern philosophy seems directed at replacing the higher contemplative mind with the lower literal mind. The result is the loss of awakening ideas and the increase of those starved for "meaning". What is more natural to satisfy the need for meaning then turning to drugs?"The object of all sacred writings is to convey higher meaning and higher knowledge in terms of
ordinary knowledge as a starting−point. The parables have an ordinary meaning. The object of the
parables is to give a man higher meaning in terms of lower meaning in such a way that he can
either think for himself or not. The parable is an instrument devised for this purpose. It can fall on
a man literally, or it can make him think for himself. It invites him to think for himself. A man
first understands on his ordinary, matter−of−fact or natural level. To lift the understanding,
whatever is taught must first fall on this level to some extent, to form a starting−point. A man
must get hold, of what he is taught, to begin with, in a natural way. But the parable has meaning
beyond its literal or natural sense. It is deliberately designed to fall first on the ordinary level of
the mind and yet to work in the mind in the direction of lifting the natural level of comprehension
to another level of meaning. From this point of view, a parable is a transforming instrument in
regard to meaning. As we shall see later the parable is also a connecting medium between a lower
and a higher level in development of the understanding"...............