… We hold that all such Mosaic and Rabbinical laws as regulate diet, priestly purity and dress originated in ages and under the influence of ideas altogether foreign to our present mental and spiritual state. They fail to impress the modern Jew with a spirit of priestly holiness; their observance in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to further modern spiritual elevation.
New Hegelian thinking colored much of the intellectual life of German Jews during the nineteenth century, and “form criticism” of the Bible was even more directed at the Old Testament than the New. The term positivism was even applied to the study of Judaism by Zechariah Frankel’s (1801-1875) “positive-historical” school of Judaism.
A reaction to the demythologized Judaism resulted in Conservative Judaism, championed by the brilliant Solomon Schechter (1850-1915) of Great Britain, who felt that there need not be a conflict between reason and traditional Judaism, nor did the communal history of the Jews need to be divorced from religious practice. Schechter spoke directly to the “form critics”:
Some years ago when the waves of Higher Criticism of the Old Testament reached the shores of this country, and such questions as the heterogeneous composition of the Pentateuch [the Torah, or “five books of Moses”], the comparatively late date of the Levitical Legislation, and the post-exilic origin of certain prophecies as well as the Psalms began to be freely discussed by the press and even in the pulpit, the invidious remark was often made: What will now become of Judaism when its last stronghold, the Law, is being shaken to its very foundations?
… There is hardly any metaphysical system, old or new, which has not in the course of time been adapted by able dialecticians to the creed which they happened to hold. In our own times we have seen the glorious, though not entirely novel, spectacle of Agnosticism itself becoming the rightful handmaid of Queen Theology. The real danger lies in “nature” (Natural Science) with its stern demand of law and regularity in all phenomena, and in the “simple meaning” (or Philology) with its inconsiderate insistence on truth.
Schecter’s words apply to the forces of positivism and New Hegelianism dominant in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; they might have been addressed to his Protestant theological colleagues as well as to European culture at large. A wissenschaftlich worldview, unlike a mythic worldview, answered the “how,” but not the “why.”
THE LEGITIMACY OF THE SUPERNATURAL
God Is Dead—Nietzsche
Neitzsche Is Dead—God
—1980s T-shirt
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), the son of a Lutheran pastor, declared “God is dead” as early as the 1880s. Again, in the 1960s, after the “demythologization” of the Christian religion, Thomas Altizer—a theologian, and not a scientist—made the statement “God is dead,” launching a worldwide debate.
A contemporary German feminist theologian, Dorothee Sölle, looking back on the then-radical statement, considers it one of the great “nonstatements” of history: Those who believed in God were in no way affected by the statement, and those who did not believe in God were also not affected.
By the end of the 1960s, there was a sense that there was no longer any place left for the supernatural in our lives, the product of one hundred and fifty years of Hegelian “historical” thinking and the inheritance of positivism. It was also in the 1960s that widespread interest in Eastern religion, fantasy literature, and new forms of Christianity began to flower.
Myth now meant “falsehood” in the popular vocabulary. At the same time, the scholars of myth fought hard to demonstrate that myth did not mean falsehood, but was rather a vehicle by which truth was conveyed.
In the 1970s and 1980s, there was a large-scale interest once again in religion, and particularly in the supernatural. The period after the declaration “God is dead” was characterized by a rise in Christian fundamentalism, interest in Eastern religions, the New Age movement with all its emphasis on the paranormal, the Charismatic renewal in the Christian churches, and a rising interest in the traditional practice of Judaism. As Paul Johnson wrote in his book Modern Times, there were probably fewer atheists in 1980 than in 1880.
In short, the mythic worldview is alive and well and making a comeback. To be human is to have myths. The mythic worldview cannot be eliminated.
* The author pointed out that he had first heard the Greek myths in a parochial school!
† “Charismatic” or “pentacostal” Christians of many denominations stress the experience of baptism of the Holy Spirit, evidenced by supernatural phenomena such as speaking in tongues, healings, and so on.
* The word cult is used here in the sense of “ritual.”
* In Christianity, Christ is believed to be God in human form.
† The German existentialist theologian Rudolf Bultmann is discussed at length later in this chapter.
* Or perhaps the substitution of a new, incomplete myth.
* But remember that Bultmann defined myth as “a breakthrough of the sacred into history”.
* Ashkenazic Jews are the German- and Yiddish-speaking Jews of Germany, Central Europe, and Russia; Ashkenaz is Hebrew for “Germany.” Sephardic Jews are the descendants of the Jews of Spain (the Hebrew word is Sefarad), who later settled in the Netherlands, North Africa, Turkey, and Greece after being expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492.
† Moses Mendelssohn was the grandfather of the composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, who converted to Lutheranism and composed a “Reformation Symphony” based on Luther’s hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”
Notes
Most sources are given in the text. The edition of the Bible quoted in this book is The Jerusalem Bible. The Greek, Roman, Indian, and Norse myths are composites of sources found in the Bibliography (unless otherwise noted).
Chapter One
THE MYTH OF HUNDUN: Anthony Christie, Chinese Mythology, p. 57.
TIME AND MYTH: Sir James G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, pp. 477-78.
Martin Heidegger: quoted by Hannah Arendt in The Life of the Mind, p. 47.
HISTORY AND MYTH: Nikolay Berdyayev: source given in text.
Lévi-Strauss, Myth and Meaning, p. 42
Eliade, Patterns in Comparative Religion, pp. 396-98.
THE CIVIC MYTH: Dürkheim, quoted by Ernest F. Wallwork in Dürkheim: Morality and Milieu, pp. 59-60.
MORALITY AND MYTH: Ibid.
Chapter Two
All sources given in text.
Chapter Three
CREATION MYTHS OF INDIA: There Was Nothing: Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism, edited by Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, p. 33.
The Thoughts of Brahma: Ibid., p. 65.
Brahma Is Lonely: The Upanishads, edited and translated by F. Max Müller, vol. II, p. 33.
THE CREATION MYTH OF IRAN: Jon Hinnels, Persian Mythology, pp. 21-22.
CREATION MYTHS OF AFRICA: The Yoruba: Geoffrey Parrinder, African Mythology, pp. 21-22.
Madagascar: Ibid., pp. 45-46.
CREATION MYTHS OF EGYPT: The Watery Abyss: Adolf Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt; Memphite Theology of Creation, source given in text.
Pritchard, James B., Editor, The Ancient Near East, Vol. I. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958.
The Creation Myth of Japan: Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God: Oriental Mythology, pp. 466-73.
THE BABYLONIAN CREATION MYTH: James B. Pritchard, ed. The Ancient Near East, Vol. I: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures, the translation of this portion by S.N. Kramer, pp 28-37.
THE POLYNESIAN CREATION MYTHS: Padraic Colum, Orpheus: Myths of the World, pp. 253-55; Roslyn Poignant, Oceanic Mythology, pp. 88-91; Martha Beckwith, Hawaiian Mythology, pp. 64-68.
CREATION MYTHS OF THE AMERICAS: Sioux: Given in Text.
Pawnee: Natalie Curtis, The Indians Book, pp. 99-102; Cottie A. Burland, North American Indian Mythology, p. 85.
Arikara: Burland, p. 77.
Iroquois: Burland, p. 66.
Yuma: Curtis, p. 562-68
Z
uni: Lewis Spence, The Myths of the North American Indians, p. 106.
The Playanos of Southern California: Ibid.
Maya: Colum, pp. 285-89; Irene Nicholson, Mexican and Central American Mythology, pp. 76-77.
Inca: Harold Osborne, South American Mythology, pp. 76-79, 105.
THE BABYLONIAN CREATION MYTH: The Ancient Near East, edited by James B.
Pritchard, vol. I, pp. 31-34.
“The Creation;” James Weldon Johnson, God’s Trombones, in Victor Gollancz, From Darkness to Light, pp. 229-31.
Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden, pp. 92-93
THE SERPENT: Campbell, The Masks of Gold: Occidental Mythology, pp. 9-13.
Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden, pp. 140-41.
Man and His Symbols, edited by CG. Jung, pp. 153-55.
THE TREE: Sagan, pp. 92-93. Jung, Ibid. Campbell, Ibid. Sagan, p. 140.
Chapter Four
A MODERN THEOLOGIAN’S INTERPRETATION OF THE FALL: Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, vol. II, pp. 31, 37.
THE TALMUDIC FALL: Robert Graves and Raphael Patai, Hebrew Myths, pp. 76-78.
THE STORY OF POIA: Spence, pp. 200-205.
THE FOUR AGES OF MAN: Textual Sources for the Study of Hinduism, edited
and translated by Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, pp. 68-71.
THE FIVE SUNS: Nicholson, pp. 53-54.
THE FIVE WORLDS: Burland, pp. 92-96. Kloskurbeh The Teacher: Curtis, pp. 1-6.
THREE STORIES OF MAUI THE TRICKSTER: Colum, pp. 254-60; Poignant, pp. 61-63.
THE ORIGIN OF MEDICINE: Spence, pp. 249-50.
MURILÉ AND THE MOONCHIEF: Parrinder, p. 73.
THE HUMAN RACE is SAVED: Spence, pp. 257-60.
Chapter Five
TATA AND NENA: Mitos Mexicanos, edited by Octavio Mejia, pp. 139-41.
Creek-Natchez: Burland, p. 115.
Mojave-Apache: Curtis, pp. 330-31.
Cree: Burland, p. 57.
Algonquin: Spence, pp. 107-108.
Inca: Osborne, p. 98.
Egypt: Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, pp. 267-69.
Chapter Six
TWO PERUVIAN LOVE STORIES: Garcia Morales, J. and Villareal, A., Literatura Sur americana, pp. 236-240; Osborne, pp. 98-102.
ANGUS OG: T. W. Rolleston, Celtic Myths and Lgends, pp. 121-23.
ALGON AND THE SKY-GIRL: Spence, pp. 152-56.
Chapter Seven
MORALITY TALES FROM MAHABHARATA: Ananda Coomaraswamy and Sister Nivedita, Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists, pp. 367-74.
ANANSI THE SPIDER: Parrinder, pp. 134-40.
Chapter Eight
THE STORY OF TWO BROTHERS: The Ancient Near East, edited by James B.
Pritchard, vol. I, pp. 12-16.
Nopatsis: Spence, pp. 184—87
Chapter Nine
All sources given in text.
Chapter Ten
PARE AND HUTU: Poignant, p. 66.
SAYADIO IN THE LAND OF THE DEAD: Spence, pp. 260-62.
Chapter Eleven
PARE AND HUTU: Poignant, p. 66.
SAYADIO IN THE LAND OF THE DEAD: Spence, pp. 260-262.
Chapter Twelve
Jeremiah Curtin: Colum, p. 5.
Sigmund Freud: Totem and Taboo, IV, The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud, A. A. Brill, ed. pp. 875-876
Ananda Coomaraswamy: Father Andrew M. Greeley, Myths of Religion, p. 13.
Nikolay Berdyayev: The Modern Tradition, edited by Richard Ellmann and Charles Feidelson, Jr., p. 674.
Carl Gustav Jung: Jung, Memories, Dreams and Reflections, p. 311.
George Santayana: Santayana, Reason in Religion, p. 49.
Alan Watts: Greeley, Ibid.
Thomas Mann: The Modern Tradition, p. 675.
Friedrich von Schlegel: Ibid., p. 662.
F. Max Müller: Ernst Cassirer, Language and Myth, p. 5.
Bruno Bettelheim: Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment, p. 35.
Robert Graves: Graves and Patai, Hebrew Myths, p. 11.
Bronislaw Malinowski: Colum, p. 5; The Modern Tradition, p. 633.
Claude Lévi-Strauss: Lévi-Strauss, Myth and Meaning, p. 17.
Joseph Campbell: Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, p. 3.
Hans Küng: Küng, On Being a Christian, pp. 414-5.
Carlos Fuentes: Wendy Faris, Carlos Fuentes, p. 18.
A. Sabatier: Coomaraswamy, Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists, p. viii. Rudolf Bultmann: Bultmann, New Testament and Mythology & Other Basic Writings, pp. 9-10, 97-99.
Reinhold Niebuhr: given in text.
Paul Tillich: Tillich, Systematic Theology, vol. 3., pp. 59-60.
Chapter Thirteen
Johann Jakob Bachofen: The source for all material on Bachofen is Henri F. Ellenberger, The Discovery of the Unconscious, pp. 218-23.
Robert Graves: Graves, The Greek Myths, vol. I, p. 13.
Émile Dürkheim, quoted by Wallwork, Dürkheim: Morality and Milieu, p. 140.
Émile Dürkheim: Marvin Harris, Cultural Materialism, p. 167.
Pierre Janet: The source for all material on Janet is Ellenberger, pp. 331-409.
Sigmund Freud: Peter Gay, Freud: A Life For Our Time; Ellenberger; Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud; The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud; Carl Gustav Jung: C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams and Reflections, p. 131; Campbell, Myths to Live By, p. 83; “Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious,” from The Basic Works of C. G. Jung, edited by Violet de Laszlo, p. 287; “The Collective Unconscious,” The Pocket Jung, edited by Joseph Campbell, p. 60; H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture, p. 44n; Lévi-Strauss, Myth and Meaning, pp. 8, 44; Harris, Cultural Materialism, pp. 167-68; Aiken and Barrett, Twentieth Century Western Philosophers, pp. 647-50.
Chapter Fourteen
All sources given in text.
Bibliography
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Arendt, Hannah. The Life of the Mind. 1971. Reprint. New York and San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1978.
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