Christians believe that Christ is their Lord and Saviour. But what is he supposed to save us from? The Romans? The devil? Ourselves?

Paul Tillich has an existential take. In The Courage to Be he writes about existential anxiety and the delusions we construct to defend ourselves against them, namely: a false sense of perfection, a false sense of certainty and a false sense of security.

The first defends us against the despair of existential guilt, the second against the despair of existential meaninglessness and the third against the despair of existential dread. The only way out, according to Tillich (and Kierkegaard), is faith, to be precise, “absolute faith”.

St. Paul famously extolled faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 13:13) which suggestively line up with existential guilt (love/forgiveness), existential meaninglessness (faith) and existential dread (hope). You could say that love, faith and hope “save us” from guilt, meaninglessness and dread (the existential anxiety of fate and death).

Christian salvation also seems to imply salvation from the fallen state of the world, or “sin”. Following Rasta tradition, I call it “Babylon”, and following Tibetan tradition, I identify six archetypes on the “Wheel of Babylon”, namely: Diva, Demon, Victim, Addict, Muppet, Muggle.

These six archetypes also suggestively line up with the three pathological defenses identified by Tillich, false perfection, false certainty and false security. The need for false perfection in the Diva-Demon axis leads to condemnation and persecution of others; for false certainty in the Muppet-Muggle axis to extremism and dogmatism; for false security in the Victim-Addict axis to isolation and escapism.

The counter-archetypes thus correspond to St. Paul’s three Christian virtues, faith, hope and love, which, as we saw, heal the wounds of guilt, meaninglessness and dread. The Mystic-Shaman (love) counters Diva-Demon despair (guilt and condemnation), the Philosopher-King (faith) counters Muppet-Muggle despair (doubt and meaninglessness) and the Warrior-Monk (hope) counters Victim-Addict despair (fate and death).

The three virtues and six counter-archetypes are contained implicitly and explicitly in the person of Christ. So we can confidently say that Christ saves us both from sin (despair) and from the world (Babylon). The virtues are free gifts of the Spirit, “through him, with him and in him”. If we try to generate them ourselves through our own efforts, we end up with poor copies that lack potency and conviction. They don’t last.

But our problem is not just with life and the world, it is also with death and God, or to be more exact, the wrath and judgment of God. In death as in life, we cannot stand before God without the mediation, atonement and reconciliation of Christ, the anointed Son of God. In the hour of our death, he can save us from eternal death and eternal damnation and grant us eternal life and eternal blessedness. Or so Christians believe.