Written Summer 2010
Humanity, the Logos, and the Cosmos

Within the opening prologue to the forth gospel of the New Testament, one encounters a number of peculiar statements. One reads of the Logos becoming flesh and tabernacling in us. One also reads of Zoe, the Mother of the Living, abiding within this very Logos and that she is the light of humanity. Throughout these and other statements, one is confronted with a rather startling claim. Everything originates and tends towards this Logos and is expressed as an adornment, or Cosmos, in which we live, move, and have our being. In the West, Logos is usually translated as Word but often Story is the better translation, though etymologically it suggests a collection of assembled bits of information. (Walter Burkert, 3) Perhaps a more all-encompassing definition would include the communicator, the communication, and the recipients thereof. Regardless of how one translates this word, the underlying emphasis in my essay will be on how the Logos takes on flesh and offers himself as our nourishment. This is best appreciated within the context of a comparative world mythology class.

Although Joseph Campbell is not the first to attempt a comprehensive study and unification of world mythologies, both his life and his works have served as source of great inspiration for many people. My own journey has been a rather lengthy and adventurous one that has sort of culminated with both the joy and the frustration that comes with realizing that one has been essentially reinventing the proverbial wheel the whole time. Most of what I write is within the context of this great journey that is uniquely my own, but I do appeal to others for the sake of adding credibility in addition to also illuminating the path by which others might follow.

With this in mind, I first want to emphasize the necessity of honoring mythological language for what it is rather than devaluing it into something it is not. Today, myths are often scoffed at or dismissed as inadequate descriptions of life and reality. But these assertions are distorted views of how the ancient world would have understood them. Myths were arguably more verifiable to ancient-man than science is to modern-man. The reason for this is just now becoming clearer with advances in quantum physics and the growing awareness that individual consciousness affects the results of scientific experiments, but I mainly want to emphasize that a mythological tradition can be experientially verified provided that one is willing to engage it. But to do so properly, one should embrace myths on their own terms. Campbell admonishes, “Read other people's myths, not those of your own religion, because you tend to interpret your own religion in terms of facts - but if you read the other ones, you begin to get the message. Myth helps you to put your mind in touch with this experience of being alive…” (Power of Myth, 5)

With this admonishment, one is cautioned against reading mythological language in terms of factual information but more important is the promise of experiencing what it is to be alive. Much of our modern civilizations are cut off from the mysteries of life that once held our ancestors in a sense of awe and wonder, but even this detachment has served a purpose. Long before the printing press altered our relationship to textual traditions, the alphabet altered our relationship to the oral traditions of our ancestors. (Leonard Shlain, 65-68) Whereas stories once were told by elders gathered around a campfire using the backdrop of the night sky and other surrounding environmental mnemonic devices, now such stories were being encountered within a rigid but quite stable medium that could be engaged by an ever-increasing number of literate people. (David Abram, 195-196) The matriarchal earth-goddess religion of antiquity was in effect being subdued by the patriarchal sky-god religion of modernity. It is for this and other reasons that the proper interpretation of ancient texts are said to be preserved within the classical and patristic writings which have been important to the development of our cultural and political psyche. And it is to this end that I now summarize Campbell with respect to the four functions that are served within an effective mythology. He explains that: the first function is to awaken and maintain a sense of awe and gratitude pertaining to an individual’s participation in the mysteries of life, the second is to present an image of the universe that is in accordance with the prevailing knowledge or worldview of the time, the third is to authenticate and support the moral values of a society, and the fourth is to guide the individual during each stage of life for the purpose of good health, strength, and overall harmony. (Myths to Live by, 122)

With these functions in mind, one can begin to appreciate the importance of promoting an atmosphere conducive to the study of comparative mythologies in not only the class-room, but even the greater public spheres of our everyday lives. One can also appreciate why certain details were included within the biblical canon while others were left out. For instance, historical details of what one historical man may or may not have said to twelve others is not nearly as important as what one inward communicator might communicate to twelve individualized aspects of one collective self. To understand how and why it is that one can read a text or listen to an external voice outside of oneself speaking from somewhere deep within one’s own heart, well it is quite the mystery to say the least. But this mystery transcends all our cultural and national borders in such a way as to force us to be open to the other precisely because this is how we come into the knowledge of ourselves. This is why Campbell could assert that the hero is, "…the man or woman who has been able to battle past his personal and local historical limitations to the generally valid, normally human forms...” and “…symbolical of that divine creative and redemptive image which is hidden within us all, only waiting to be known and rendered into life...” (The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 14, 31)

And finally, when taking all this together as a collective whole it shouldn’t be such a surprise to discover a suffering hero within the New Testament Gospels nor a tyrannical king whose very name suggests that a great mystery is waiting to be encountered by those who are themselves willing to commit to a journey which our ancestors have not only traveled themselves, but also left behind signs and clues by which we ourselves can navigate our lives. But so long as we foolishly convince ourselves that the latest scientific knowledge, or the current news in world affairs, is a better and more trustworthy guide to reality than our ancestral myths, there can be little doubt that we will continue to reap according to what we are now sowing. Thus, it is imperative for us to empower future generations by restoring mythology to its proper place of honor within our society lest we should remain forever enslaved to ideals which we do not understand and celebrating a freedom which we do not genuinely possess.

Works Cited

Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous,
          Vintage, Random House, New York, 1996. Print
Burkert, Walter. Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual
          University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California. 1979. Print
Campbell, Joseph. Myths to Live by,
          Viking Penguin, New York. 1972. Print
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero With A Thousand Faces
          Joseph Campbell Foundation. New World Library Novato, California, 2008. Print
Campbell, Joseph. The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers,
          Anchor Books. Random House, Inc. New York, 2008. Print
Shlain, Leonard. The Alphabet Versus The Goddess
          Penguin Group, New York, 1998. Print
World Mythology: An Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics, 3rd ed.
          Ed. Donna Rosenberg. Lincolnwood: NTC Publishing Group, 1999. Print.