Mark, “inspiration” is fine. I’m perfectly satisfied with you leaving “prayer” off the list. Maybe it should be there, but I’m hardly the person to add it. As I said over in the thread “Is there a Place for Mysticism?”:
Some things can lead me to (inspire me to) prayer. Pulling my mind together in some sort of deliberate, focused way to practice what some people might call contemplative prayer, however, is a wrestling match with short-lived wins. If the interruption is not external, it’s internal. Texts to use for mental guidance help, but the work also has to be done, and I’m distractable. I’m grateful for the mercy and kindness of God, expressed in Romans 8:26-27:
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
The work is valuable, but for me, it’s hard, cerebral work. There is nothing intuitive about it in my case.
I agree with you regarding the likeness of God in people as “image bearers.” and difference in kind from God or the divine. I think there has been some discussion on the topic around the forum, but I’ve been reading other threads. So, I don’t know what was discussed. My understanding of it has always been fairly vague–those characteristics that make us different from all other animal life, but which are so hard to nail down, although I would include in the list the things you’ve mentioned earlier in this discussion (development to think in abstract and hypotheticals). We are ourselves metaphors of something “god like” but certainly unable to fully express it for many reasons. As I understand it, we are somehow set apart from other living things and are responsible to recognize and honor that “set-apartedness” in other ones like us. (What if those of us who claimed to hold some belief in the Image of God in humans, actually did value humans accordingly?) Additionally, we “image bearers” are recipients of grace and mercy because we need it in ways that no other animal life does. If this all sounds very vague, it is.
Your point that “more likely belief renders God in our likeness” is always a concern for me. The concept of idolatry is a reality for me, something that I take seriously. Our imaginations, another feature I see as part of the concept of Image of God, can do all sorts of mischief. I’ve mentioned guardrails elsewhere. This is probably one of the areas I am most likely to feel the need for them. I suspect that sounds completely boxed in to you. However, when one “has a god” and loves that God, that god/God gets to define him-/her-/itself.
(Just skimming here to find some hooks to hang on to, regarding Jung. )
So, in regard to your mention of Jungian psychiatry, are you asking the questions about “suspending disbelief” and “holding it consciously as something hypothetical” regarding god beliefs?
I’ll just leave your last few lines for you to help me with. I’m not sure what you’re getting at. Thanks.