Myth
Monday, January 6, 2025
Listening to the story of the Magi this morning, I was prompted ponder again, how do I believe. I struggle even to explain the question:
- It is practical.
- It is not hypothetical.
- I am trying to determine how to approach faith and scripture in ways that are both respectful and realistic.
- What hermeneutic do I use to understand passages that are likely ahistorical?
- What value can I derive from archetypal stories?
- What value can I derive from mundane stories that are nevertheless included in scripture?
What do I mean by myth? I’m getting at the technical or literary definition:
a traditional story accepted as history; serves to explain the world view of a people
A myth is a story that may not be factual, but it accurately reflects the way we believe the world works and how people behave. In other words, a myth may not describe historical facts, but it conveys practical truth.
When we refer to myth now, we often mean simply a widely told story that isn’t true, but I want to use it more in the Joseph Campbell sense of a story that helps us make sense of the world. When I say parts of scripture are mythical, I don’t mean they are fibs. I mean they are stories that have been passed down and refined over millennia and that carry the accumulated wisdom of everyone who has passed them along from hearer to hearer. The facts may not be exactly correct or may even be completely fabricated, but the story is still true.
Religious fundamentalists have a hard time with non-factual truth. So do many humanist geeks. The Enlightenment brought a lot of good in that it drove a method of discovery (the scientific method) which has helped us enormously in learning how the mechanics of the world work. It also engendered a distrust of truth that was not material and empirical. Among my people, to call scripture mythical is seen as unfaithful and an insult to God. It’s a liberal sin. I want to use it in a way that respects scripture more, not less—it doesn’t demand that scripture be 100% factually and literally (not literarily) true, a brittle claim that snaps and crumbles at the least stress. My problem is the environment in which I was raised, which has made it impossible for me to use the term without feeling anxious. It’s hard for me to trust in something that makes me squirm.
So, myth may be a helpful term to use of scripture but not until I can get past my discomfort and our cultural disrespect for anything not seen as factual. I’m hoping I can find another word out there or adopt one and make it mean what need it to mean for myself.