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Copyright 1994 by the Christian Research Institute.
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"The Power of Myth" by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers
(Doubleday, 1988) (a book review from the Christian Research
Journal, Fall, 1989, page 28, by Douglas Groothuis.)
   The Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal is
Elliot Miller.

-------------

*A Summary Critique*

    One of the surprise best sellers of the late 1980s has been
_The Power of Myth_ by Joseph Campbell (1904-1987). The book
takes the shape of a warm, wide-ranging, engaging dialogue with
veteran journalist Bill Moyers and is richly illustrated with
examples from world mythology and religion.

    _The Power of Myth_ is drawn from a series of interviews done
in 1985 and 1986 and first shown on public television in 1988,
about six months after Campbell's death. The work serves as a
summation of Campbell's thought as a long-time literature
professor at Sarah Lawrence College and a prolific writer on
mythology and literature. The eight chapters range over such
subjects as the role of mythology in the modern world, the
journey inward, the hero's adventure, and tales of love and
marriage.

    Campbell's appeal lies in an encyclopedic grasp of world
mythology and religion, winningly presented with a masterful
storytelling ability. He was one who, in his own words, "followed
his bliss" -- and his enthusiasm for the subject can be
infectious.


*THE POWER OF MYTH*

    For Campbell, the "power of myth" is the power of metaphor
and poetry to capture the imaginations of individuals and
societies. Myth supplies a sense of meaning and direction
that transcends mundane existence while giving it significance.
It has four functions (p. 31): The _mystical function_ discloses
the world of mystery and awe, making the universe "a holy
picture." The _cosmological function_ concerns science and the
constitution of the universe. The _sociological function_
"supports and validates a certain social order." Everyone must
try to relate to the _pedagogic function_ which tells us "how to
live a human lifetime under any circumstances." America, Campbell
believes, has lost its collective ethos and must return to a
mythic understanding of life "to bring us into a level of
consciousness that is spiritual" (p. 14).

    Campbell defends the benefits of myths as _literally false_
but _metaphorically true_ for the broad range of human
experience. But certain myths are (at least in part) to be
rejected as "out of date," particularly the personal lawgiver God
of Jews and Christians. Biblical cosmology, he thinks, does not
"accord with our concept of either the universe or of the dignity
of man. It belongs entirely somewhere else" (p. 31).

    Campbell's own mythic commitment is to the "transtheological"
notion of an "undefinable, inconceivable mystery, thought of as a
power, that is the source and end and supporting ground of all
life and being" (_Ibid._). He rejects the term "pantheism"
because it may retain a residue of the personal God of theism.
Campbell repeatedly hammers home this notion of an ineffable
ground of reality: "God is beyond names and forms. Meister
Eckhart said that the ultimate and highest leave-taking is
leaving God for God, leaving your notion of God for an experience
of that which transcends all notions" (p. 49).

    Despite such an epistemological veto on our ability to
conceive of anything transcendent, Campbell draws on Carl Jung's
theory of a collective unconscious to help explain the common
ideas ("archetypes") that recur in the mythologies of divergent
cultures worldwide. "All over the world and at different times
of human history, these archetypes, or elementary ideas, have
appeared in different costumes. The differences in the costumes
are the results of environment and historical conditions" (pp.
51-52).

    But not all archetypes are created equal. Campbell singles
out the notion of sin as especially pernicious because it stifles
human potential. If you confess your sins you make yourself a
sinner; if you confess your greatness you make yourself great.
The "idea of sin puts you in a servile position throughout your
life" (p. 56). He later redefines sin as a lack of knowledge, not
as an ethical transgression: "Sin is simply a limiting factor
that limits your consciousness and fixes it in an inappropriate
condition" (p. 57).

    It seems, to steal a phrase from Swami Vivekananda, that the
only sin is to call someone a sinner. Campbell believes our
challenge is to say, "I know the center, and I know that good and
evil are simply temporal aberrations and that, in God's view,
there is no difference" (p. 66). In fact, "in God's view," you
are "God, not in your ego, but in your deepest being, where you
are at one with the nondual transcendent" (p. 211).

    The thematic richness of this work could occupy several
reviews. This review will consider some of the philosophical,
religious, and societal issues it raises.


*TRANSCENDENTAL MYSTERY*

    A salient feature of Campbell's world view is a pronounced
inconsistency, which -- unless flushed out -- may remain under
the wraps of his winsomeness.

    According to Campbell, myth opens us to the realm of
transcendental mystery where awe and inspiration energize and
permeate our beings. But given Campbell's epistemological veto
of any knowledge of the transcendent, we can say nothing concrete
of it. It is beyond concepts, names, and thought. It is
metaphysically mute. Campbell wants to vindicate myths by saying
they are not to be taken concretely, but metaphorically. Yet even
metaphors are incorrigibly conceptual; poetry says something.
Propositions are pesky things. They are difficult to fumigate.
The Hindu myth of a blood-soaked, skull-adorned Mother Kali
destroying the world carries the nonmetaphorical meaning that God
is as much Destroyer as Creator. That's the theology of it, even
when taken as myth and not history.

    Campbell himself enthusiastically disregards his
epistemological veto by issuing many conceptual statements about
that which (supposedly) transcends concepts entirely. He affirms
that the ground of all forms is impersonal, not personal. This
assumes definite knowledge of the ontology (i.e., mode of being)
of divinity. He sees this impersonal source of all being as
beyond ethical categories, so we must say Yes to all of life,
no matter how degraded. Yet this too assumes definite knowledge
of the character of the transcendent as amoral, not moral. The
transcendent is also "nondual" as opposed to dual or triune. All
myths, he affirms, point to an invisible world beyond the world
of visible form. Further, "we are all manifestations of Buddha
consciousness, or Christ consciousness, only we don't know it"
(p. 57). (We are, then, not conscious of our divine
consciousness.) Again, specific propositions are affirmed, and in
quite nonmetaphorical language. Campbell's "transcendental
silence" has a habit of speaking out. The explicit
epistemological veto is overridden by an implicit theology that
welcomes pantheism and filters out theism. Despite his statement
that "the person who thinks he has found the ultimate truth is
wrong" (p. 55), Campbell repeatedly and dogmatically asserts the
ultimate truth of an impersonal and amoral divinity.

    Campbell also rejects the idea of God as "Absolutely Other"
because, he says, we can have no relationship with that in which
we do not participate. Yet, how we -- as personal and morally
responsible beings -- can conceptualize or experience a religious
relationship with an impersonal and amoral ground of the universe
is less than clear.


*LITERALISM ON TRIAL*

    Campbell is ever at odds with a religious literalism which
reifies mythic themes into concrete facts. He refers to the
biblical creation story that teaches an actual beginning of the
universe as "artificialism" and chides Bill Moyers for
considering the resurrection of Christ in historic terms. He says
such a view "is a mistake in reading the symbol"; it is to read
"the words in terms of prose instead of in terms of poetry," and
to read "the metaphor in terms of the denotation instead of the
connotation" (p. 57). In fact, Jesus' ascension into heaven,
metaphorically interpreted, means that "he has gone inward --
not into outer space but into inward space, to...the
consciousness that is the source of all things, the kingdom of
heaven within" (p. 56).

    Given this method of interpretation, Campbell much prefers
Gnosticism over orthodoxy. He quotes favorably from _The Gospel
of Thomas_ where Jesus is portrayed as teaching that "he who
drinks from my mouth will become as I am," and properly notes
that "this is blasphemy in the normal way of Christian thinking"
(p. 57).

    Campbell's approach to mythology has the appearance of
profundity. He uses it profitably to construct interpretations of
a vast body of literature. He likens mistaking a _metaphor_ for
its _reference_ to eating a _menu_ instead of the _meal._ Yet
when Campbell addresses biblical materials, such as the Gospels
or Acts (which were written as history, not poetry or visionary
literature), it becomes painfully evident that his metaphoric
interpretation is forced at best. Certainly, the significance
of the ascension of Christ for Christians is not exhausted by
spatial location, yet the physical reference is intrinsic to
the significance that Christ is not bound to earth. He has
ascended to the "right hand" (this phrase, of course, _is_
metaphoric) of the Father where He now reigns. Campbell may
not believe the Ascension to be literally true, but the apostles
did and the church still does. A more judicious reading would
note that a miraculous truth claim is being made, to be either
accepted or rejected -- not reinterpreted by a mythical
hermeneutic. Instead of eating the menu, Campbell misreads it and
fancies a meal never mentioned.

    The classic Christian text on the historicity of the
resurrection of Christ is Paul's insistence to the Corinthian
church that if Christ be not raised, Christian faith is in vain
(1 Cor. 15:14). Moreover, if the Resurrection is factually false,
apostolic preaching is futile and misrepresents God, Christians
are left in their sin, departed Christians have perished, and
Christians are of all people most pitiful (vv. 15-19). Paul had
no mere mythic symbol in mind here. Neither would the early
Christians have died martyrs' deaths for metaphors. The apostle
Peter, in his second epistle (1:16), went so far as to say that
"we did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you
about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were
eyewitnesses of his majesty."

    Campbell is pleased with diverse mythic expressions so long
as they refer only to the unknowable transcendent. But he
strongly rejects the concept of a _fallen_ creation in need
of _external_ redemption made known through an _historically
grounded_ revelation from a _personal_ God. He expresses
amazement at the Hebraic commandment "Thou shalt have no other
gods before me." Such militant monotheism curtails the mythic
imagination. Campbell chokes on the hard historicity of
Christianity, and is not comfortable until he recasts it in
metaphorical terms.


*MYTH BECOME FACT*

    Yet evangelicals need not entirely dismiss Campbell's mythic
concerns. Christian writers like C. S. Lewis have argued that the
world's mythologies present a dim imitation of the redemption
made historical through Christ. Mythologies worldwide speak of
lost innocence, cosmic conflict, and redemption. In this sense
the mythic dimension can be seen as part of general revelation,
not in itself salvific, but pointing beyond itself to what Lewis
in _God in the Dock_ called "myth become fact:" "The heart
of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth
of the dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from
the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history.
It happens -- at a particular date, in a particular place,
followed by debatable historical consequences. We pass from a
Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to an
historical Person crucified (it is all in order) under Pontius
Pilate."

    Campbell largely dismisses the historicity of Christianity by
saying we don't know much about Jesus, given we only have "four
contradictory texts that purport to tell us what he said and did"
(p. 211). He adds that, despite these supposed contradictions, we
know "approximately what Jesus said" (p. 211). If Campbell would
have taken seriously the idea of a basic historical record of
Jesus' words, he might have been less inclined to recast
Christianity in mythic terms. The wealth of historical material
provided by the Gospels, while not without some complexities,
reveals a concern for historical accuracy and integrity, (see,
e.g. Luke's prologue).


*MYTHOLOGY AND PUBLIC LIFE*

    How would this mythic world view describe public life? He
expresses concern that hollow rationalism and literalistic
religion are inadequate to meet modern needs. Although he doesn't
develop a social philosophy, we can infer some clues.

    First, Campbell's ethical evaluations remain unrelated to any
enduring moral order. He states: "The final secret of myth [is]
to teach you how to penetrate the labyrinth of life in such a way
that its spiritual values come through" (p. 115). The
sociological function of myth is to validate a given social
order. Yet these spiritual values are relative to various
cultures and historical epochs. Myths are all "true" but some
must be adapted to modern needs and realities. Campbell deems
unecological the Christian cosmology of the earth as separate
from God, and instead opts for a not-yet-fully-developed
"planetary mythology" that resacralizes the universe along
Buddhist lines.

    Given such cosmic amoralism -- God as beyond morality -- it
remains to be seen how any judgment or mythical imperative could
be ethically binding or normative. The Good is not based on God's
unchanging moral character as a personal being; it is not
knowable through His self-disclosure. The transcendent is
ineffable and therefore morally as well as metaphysically mute.
Any mythic recommendation for people or society is simply an
inexplicable archetypal upsurge of the ultimately unknown and
unknowable. Campbell's advocacy of a "planetary mythology" is
mere vision with no vindication of its value.

    Second, Campbell's ethics are further eroded by a tendency
toward monism, so often tied to pantheism. In explaining the
heroic deed of a policeman to save a man attempting suicide,
Campbell invokes Schopenhauer's notion that "you and that other
are one, that you are two aspects of the one life, and that your
apparent separateness is but an effect of the way we experience
forms under the conditions of space and time. Our true reality is
in our identity and unity with all life" (p. 110). But if the
subject-object distinction is not ultimately real, the very idea
of self-giving or self-sacrifice must itself be sacrificed on the
monistic altar. Any action could be justified in terms of cosmic
selfism. If all is one, how could we violate others' rights?
Social ethics would be rendered sociological solitaire.

    Third, the monistic model is at odds with Campbell's praise
of the West's positive emphasis on the individual's worth and
freedom. Individualism (in the positive sense of the dignity
of individuals) can only be praised if one adopts an
(nonmonistic) ontology of actual, singular entities (humans
and otherwise) and a corresponding ethic that respects the right
of individual expression. Individualism historically has not
fared well in nations such as India where monism monitors
morality.

    Fourth, although Campbell has many harsh words for Christian
theism -- which has served as the foundation for so many Western
individual liberties -- he reserves judgment on extreme tribal
practices such as head-hunting and initiations requiring sexual
debauchery and even human sacrifice. He sees these ritual acts
simply as enacted mythologies vital to cultural life.

    Fifth, in a telltale passage, Campbell contrasts the ancient
religion of the Goddess with that of the Bible: "You get a
totally different civilization and a totally different way of
living according to whether your myth presents nature as fallen
or whether nature is in itself a manifestation of divinity, and
the spirit is the revelation of the divinity that is inherent in
nature" (p. 99). Campbell clearly chooses the latter and says
that "one of the glorious things about Goddess religions" is that
"the world is the body of the Goddess, divine in itself, and
divinity isn't ruling over a fallen nature." This, in fact, seems
to be Campbell's model for society: a social order uninhibited by
any supernatural authority or by any recognition of pervasive
human fallibility and moral aberration.

    Sixth, unlike the historic American ideal, Campbell's mythic
world view allows for no appeal to "inalienable rights" granted
to all by their creator. That would be too literalistic and
absolutistic. Nor could there be violations of human dignity
because we have no law above the sociologically functioning
mythologies that inspire social order. Instead of a universal Law
above human law we simply have the ineffable -- in the collective
unconsciousness -- below the mythological manifestations.


*MYTHIC PLURALISM*

    It might appear at first that Campbell's mythic
permissiveness (no one mythic understanding is ultimately true)
would serve as a solid platform for pluralism. At one point he
says that mythologies are like individual software; if yours
works, don't change it. But the classical liberal (not the
modern, relativistic liberal) understanding of pluralism is
deeper and wider. It assumes truth has nothing to fear from a
plurality of perspectives; it can compete with and triumph over
error in "the marketplace of ideas" by virtue of its own merit.
Western liberty of expression is premised on _the right to be
right_ and _the right to be wrong_ and be proven wrong through
dialogue, debate, and discussion. Mythic pluralism assumes no
truth to be discovered, debated, or discussed. The merit of any
mythology is not its objective veracity but its subjective pull
and social power. Mythic pluralism endorses a relativism that
ignores the possibility of uncovering the absolute, the
universal, or the objective. If the software works, keep it --
just so long as you delete any religious literalism.

    Campbell may not have countenanced it, but it may befall him
to become a posthumous prophet for New Age sentiments. Although
more of an academic than a popularizer, his world view is in
basic agreement with New Age celebrities like Shirley MacLaine,
Werner Erhard, and John Denver. All is one; god is an impersonal
and amoral force in which we participate; supernatural revelation
and redemption are not needed. Campbell's erudition and
sophisticated manner may attract those who are less impressed by
the metaphysical glitz of a Shirley MacLaine, the rank
superstition of "crystal consciousness," or the cosmic hype of
the "Harmonic Convergence."

    Campbell is correct: the power of myth in its various
functions is potent and pervasive. Human beings need a
comprehensive world view capable of undergirding and integrating
individual and social values, engaging the imagination,
activating the intellect, and energizing the will. Yet it must
also be _true._ Campbell abandoned what he confessed he could not
understand -- "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" -- and
affirmed gods many and lords many. One can only hope his readers
will harken to the words of another person conversant with the
power of myth, G. K. Chesterton. He said in "The Unfinished
Temple," "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found
wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried."

-------------
    A longer version of this review originally appeared in vol.
2, no.'s 6-8 of _Genesis,_ "a bi-monthly review of the arts,
humanities, science, and popular culture." Write Berean
Publications, P.O. Box 100, Powhatan, VA 23139.

_____________
End of document, CRJ0036A.TXT (original CRI file name),
"The Power of Myth"
release A, March 10, 1994
R. Poll, CRI

(A special note of thanks to Bob and Pat Hunter for their help in
the preparation of this ASCII file for BBS circulation.)
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