If there was a virtue that I can rally behind that isn’t ostensibly Christian and theological, it is the value of authenticity. No doubt Jungians have long use the cross as vehicle to speak of the process of individualization and becoming true authentic; I think that if we are scrupulous about wrestling with the notion of “what is my most authentic self?”
In fact, to borrow an adage from my personal archives, a teacher once encouraged me to be use the model “selectively authentic,” as a blueprint for how to be in the world.
There is lots of space under this umbrella, as the numerous ways to be authentic present themselves in every situation. The point is not to be self-effacing and blindly generous, in Religious-guilt-sort-of-way, but to be honest with ourselves and others in the best way we can.
If the crucifixion is the death of the ego, then the resurrection is surely the birth of the authentic self. Yet we need not suffer tremendous and dramatic wounds in order to strive for practical authenticity in the smaller, daily challenges that present themselves.
