--------The word myth is most commonly used to refer to ancient stories told by Greeks, Norsemen or Native Americans. The myths popularized by them are classic, and serve well to define the word. Deities who have supernatural powers to create the earth, regulate the weather, control the seas, and other feats of greatness capture our imaginations and serve as fodder for literature and the other arts.
But there is another meaning for myth which became familiar to us through the teachings of Joseph Campbell, author of The Power of Myth. (Doubleday, 1988) It is the result of a fascinating series of interviews with Bill Moyers.
"A fundamental belief of Campbell's was that all spirituality is a search for the same basic, unknown force from which everything came, within which everything currently exists, and into which everything will return. This elemental force is ultimately “unknowable” because it exists before words and knowledge. Although this basic driving force cannot be expressed in words, spiritual rituals and stories refer to the force through the use of "metaphors"—these metaphors being the various stories, deities, and objects of spirituality we see in the world. For example, the Genesis myth in the Bible ought not be taken as a literal description of actual events, but rather its poetic, metaphorical meaning should be examined for clues concerning the fundamental truths of the world and our existence." (Wikipedia)
I find the work of Campbell to be enlightening. Some do not. To some, for whom spirituality or faith must be unquestionably factual, the use of myth as Campbell uses it, is offensive and even heretical. The literal reading of scripture is a necessity.
But for Campbell, a Christian, myth is not a pejorative term, but a helpful explanation about faith which leads to a deeper understanding of those who participated in the foundations of faith experience. Myth becomes a tool, acted out in our rituals and liturgies, incorporated into our stories, and the subject of the arts which help to define our faith experience.
Myth, to many, is a synonym for false or fictional. That is not an accurate definition of myth, which can be an element of fiction or an element of non-fiction, depending upon its use. The story of Noah and the Ark, for instance, is a myth which may incorporate elements of meteorological history about a time of great flooding in the Middle East. But its greatest value is the teaching it projects about faith and tenacity in the face of skeptical thought. It relates the theme of consistency of God's love for creation and God's promise to preserve that which has been created. In today's world it is an inspiration for those who seek to remind us of the sacredness of creation and the need for ecological and environmental morality.
We need not be fearful of reading history with an openness to the presence of myth . To the contrary, being open to the nature of myth may provide the reader with a fresh way of approaching one's faith. The Creator, by whatever name known, becomes a more acceptable element of one's faith, and religious history becomes more easily understood when the power of myth is acknowledged.
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