Paul Tillich’s description of the original understanding of the word myth as an account of an interaction between the human and the divine are that myths are symbols of faith, which tell stories to portray situations of ultimate concern. Myths may be ‘broken’ or ‘unbroken.’ Unbroken myths are myths which are accepted as literal statements of reality. Broken myths are myths which are interpreted as myths, as symbolic statements of reality. The “popular use of the word myth to denote something that is thought by many people to be “true,” but actually is not true can be examined through history. Today’s current understanding of myth is: “A traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or heroor event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a naturalexplanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigodsand explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature,istories or matter of this kind,iany invented story, idea, or concept,ian imaginary or fictitious thing or person,ian unproved or false collective belief that is …show more content…
used to justify a social institution.” I. It is entirely difficult for me to use the word “myth” in its correct original context when I am constantly subjected to the “popular” perception of the word as denoting something that is not true because it creates a ton of confusion and misunderstanding throughout your explanation or argument. “That’s not true; that’s just a myth” probably developed from “deceiving” types of people that pretend they are proving something by showing un-proven things on the opposing side of their argument and posing it as a “politically correct” way. Both substantial, lasting, and important: statements of faith, or statements that can be exposed to empirical analysis and judgments that often must change about them, such as, for example, statements about whether eating eggs is good or bad for your health are of equal importance to me. The whole purpose and meaning of faith, to me, is being able to honor God and please God without questioning him. So depicting the “importance” of his word according to a statement is irrelevant in faith, unless God himself states, through a profit or God making it known, states the importance of the statement himself. Then and only then is one statement more important than the other in scripture. The “criticism” of myth (of the words that we use with which to express our faith) so important because something is not proven does not mean it is unproven.
This can generate a huge detrimental loss of history and the lessons learned for the Myths if they were to be casted away as untrue. Myths still have a meaning; whether true or false, taking away a myth creates taking away its healthy and helpful meaning, yet “criticism” of everything equally important due to it attracting the completed purpose and point of the madder. If questions were never asked about anything, there would only ever be information and never knowledge or new information. People being critical of faith could lead to a loss part of followers of that faith, but could also greatly add to the congregation for those who agree with or respect the answers they find from being critical. “Criticism” involves both positive and negative
evaluations. Criticism involves both positive and negative evaluations due to how it is used. If criticism is used to only try and understand completely it is positively evaluated. If criticism is used to only try and disprove and negate then it is used in a negative evaluated context. Careful criticism is necessary when handling myths due to myths can be taken literal or figuratively so handling a myth only one way may lose the message or lesson of the myth. Demythologization is the process of breaking down a myth piece by piece to understand the context, background, and history before applying it to ourselves. A broken myth is the process of “de-coding” a myth. I suppose both God and people who believed in God included harmful racist and sexist elements into our biblical and liturgical myths. The reason that I come to this conclusion is due to my faith in that all that derives from the Jewish torah and Christian bible is holy words of and from God. With that I do understand the vulnerability of God’s word to be changed by heathens for no other reasons than personal gain. This indicates about the nature of our Scriptures and about the Scriptures of people in other religions, such as Islam, that scripture can be easily manipulated in a physical since which makes it extremely vulnerable to being changed into someone’s interpretation or for sinister purposes. Scripture can also be manipulated into a weapon of choice without physically changing the scripture at all. I am not sure either way if certain scriptures were intended to be racist, sexist, or harmful in any way, by the writer or reader. Or if the writer or was compelled through an Ultimate Concern to write what the reader interprets as offensive. The identification and the repudiation of the harmful racist and sexist elements that are in our biblical and liturgical myths so necessary and important because the recognition can help humanity learn lessons that were taught and played out long ago. I interpret everything in Christian scripture either figuratively or literally and sometimes both. I also take it as truthful, purposeful, and important. With this confidence I understand that everything in the Christian scripture isn’t politically correct; yet it can still be used for historical value in a truthful, purposeful, and important way. To repudiate something is to “refuse to accept or be associated with, deny the truth or validity of, refuse to fulfill or discharge (an agreement, obligation, or debt).” II. To eradicating something is to “destroy completely; put an end to.” III. Our repudiation of harmful racist and sexist elements that are in our biblical and liturgical myths a recognition of the great importance of the language of our faith and itself a very significant expression of our faith language used, especially holy language, is extremely important to everyone in the world, religious or not, due to its impact on all peoples. Its impact can come from leaders, followers, the vast majority, the small majority, and all derived from they’re interpretation of scripture. No madder how big or small language of faith’s ability to affect is always relevant. I see myself on the continuum between totally literalistic and totally critical analysis with regard to mythological language in the middle. I am sometimes completely literalistic, completely critical, and a healthy balance of both throughout my biblical studies in regard to mythological language; it depends on the myth provided. It not possible to make a clear distinction between natures based myths and myths that are based on human experience because both nature based and human experience based myths are derived from manmade stories. Nature based and human based myths also tend to conflict or contradict each other, which brings an indefinite arrangement. Tillich’s description of the nature of religious language and our discussions about the nature of religious language has been helpful to me by the realization to grow more in my faith, to pay attention more when growing in my faith, to do more in depth research; and with what I learn to use it as a tool to help my faith grow stronger and wiser.
David, Adams Leening., ed. The World of Myths: An Anthology. New York: Oxford UP, 1990.
In a succession myth, the familial relationship between the gods is significant. In the three works: The Babylonian Enuma Elish, The Hittite Illuyanka Myths (version 2) and the Greek Theogony by Hesiod; it can be argued that the succession of the gods is a reflection of their power and that this power eventually leads to a redistribution of position within the gods. In the Babylonian Enuma Elish, each generation of god is proclaimed to be stronger than the last and eventually this culmination of power leads to Marduk killing his great-great grandmother. In the Illuyanka myths (version 2) there is a decrease of power in the line of succession but the power is restored to the Storm God in the form of his heart and his eyes. In the Greek poet Hesiod’s Theogony, gods and monsters (Cyclopes) also become more powerful with each succession, as in the Enuma Elish, and Zeus overthrows his father fulfilling the prophecy given by Heaven and Earth.
A myth is a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events. Each civilization has its myths about the creation of the world and its human race. Most speak of “gods” who perform feats far beyond that of humankind. Most are legends passed down through oral tradition, and embellished along the way. The book of Genesis is one of the most significant books in the Bible and is sacred scripture for Jews, Samaritans, and Christians. The Babylonian epic, Enuma Elish, is one of the most important sources for understanding the Babylonian worldview. Hesiod’s Theogony is a poem describing the origins and genealogies of
In order to understand how myth and history work to explain things and recover identity it is important to understand their similarities and differences. Myth and history are similar in that they both explain, instruct, give origin, and shape the world. Their differences lie in the use of the supernatural. Whereas myth deals with "supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes," and explains "aspects of the natural world," history is "A chronological record of events, as of the development of a people....A formal written account of related natural phenomena" (College Dictionary 903, 644). Myth relies on faith for belief, while recorded history relies on documentation or proof. Though they differ in these ways, myth and history are both equally reliable sources of explanation and guidance. Whereas one event may be documented to have taken place and another event may not have such proof, both happenings offer the same end: what is to be learned from the story. Northrop Frye writes in "The Koine of Myth" that there are stories that "may be asserted to have really happened, but what is important about them is not that, but that they are stories which it is particularly urgent for the community to...
Foster defines myth as a forming and managing force of a story and its images; our capacity to clarify ourselves; myths are so profoundly instilled our social memory that they both shape our culture and are formed by it.
John Updike’s book, The Centaur, has taken the classical myth of Chiron the minotaur and put it into a different setting in the United States. Instead of Olympus, Greece as the setting, Olinger high school in Pennsylvania is used as a parallel. The setting is just one of the many examples of parallels in John Updike’s book, mainly regarding the characters.
Over the recent centuries, the definition of myth has decayed into a word synonymous with falsehoods and lies. This idea of myths being completely false and therefore useless is a fairly modern one. To combat the rise of empirical science in the 1900s, theologians brought the idea of wholly literal, fundamental religion into being to combat ideas that did not perfectly align with the tenants of the religion (May 24). This was the final death blow to the idea of the metaphysical myth that was already wounded from thousands of years of being denounced as pagan or barbaric. The rise of empirical science also lent to the decay of the meaning of myth. Science was able to explain the natural world far better than a myth ever could; however, it lacked the metaphysical aspect. Due to these rising ideologies, myths hav...
... by people or it was proven to be true over the years. In conclusion, it is widely believed that myth and religion are two different things. Religion involves an array of non-mythical elements including a moral code, a faith in a supreme being and dutifulness to the Church, but religion believes can be sometimes mistaken as myth because it a supernatural thing. Until now the Bible showed it is truly identity as a word of god in everything, and if there is anything in the Bible that is still unclear or not proved yet that dose not mean it is a myth, and does not mean there is a myth in the Bible because what is in the Bible is true. However, humans minds cannot understand the unlimited god with their limited minds, so they think what is in the Bible is a myth, but in fact the Bible has no myth because the Bible is the word of God, and everything is as it is written.
Myths relate to events, conditions, and deeds of gods or superhuman beings that are outside ordinary human life and yet basics to it” ("Myth," 2012). Mythology is said to have two particular meanings, “the corpus of myths, and the study of the myths, of a particular area: Amerindian mythology, Egyptian mythology, and so on as well as the study of myth itself” ("Mythology," 1993). In contrast, while the term myth can be used in a variety of academic settings, its main purpose is to analyze different cultures and their ways of thinking. Within the academic setting, a myth is known as a fact and over time has been changed through the many different views within a society as an effort to answer the questions of human existence. The word myth in an academic context is used as “ancient narratives that attempt to answer the enduring and fundamental human questions: How did the universe and the world come to be? How did we come to be here? Who are we? What are our proper, necessary, or inescapable roles as we relate to one another and to the world at large? What should our values be? How should we behave? How should we not behave? What are the consequences of behaving and not behaving in such ways” (Leonard, 2004 p.1)? My definition of a myth is a collection of false ideas put together to create
“A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are narrative patterns that give significance to our existence.” ― Rollo May
The book is broken up into two sections. The first half of the book, “The Bible and Myth,” Oswalt takes the time to define what a myth is and what differentiates
Myths the stories of old, how the ancients explained the creation of the world and how the human race came to be. Myths can be viewed as outdated and no longer needed. However, myths are still important today. This is the point that Joseph Campbell, and Bill Mayer discuss at Skywalker Ranch in The Power of Myth. Joseph Campbell famous mythologist is interviewed by Bill Mayer about myths from different cultures and how they are still important today. This interview makes the point that myths, although centuries old are still used today, in both popular media and other aspects of culture.
A myth is a traditional story that considers the history of people explaining some type of event that typically involves mystical beings or events. In "A Long Way Gone” the author provided many myths and legends such as “wild pigs”, “bra spider”, omen of the crow, the name ceremonies and so many more. Each story has it's only purpose, but in all I believe the purpose of each myth or legend is to teach a lesson, or to tell a story of things good or bad.
The Classical mythology contains tales and epics of the ancient Greek and roman literatures and myths. On the other hand, Homer’s two epic poems, the Iliad relates to the events of the Trojan War while the Odyssey details Odysseus expedition after the war. Homer’s epic poems, the Odyssey and the Iliad present a major part of ancient history as modern fictional heroic stories. In ancient Greek, heroes were humans who were depicted to possess superhuman abilities. A key example in the classical mythology is Akhilles who is later known in Homer’s Iliad as Achilles. Achilles is he greatest hero of the Iliad whereas Odysseus is the greatest hero of the Odyssey. The greatest heroes from classic mythology and the modern fictional hero’s stories are mortal, and subject to death. The Odyssey and the Iliad marks the beginning of modern fictional literature.
One modernist author, Herman Broch, discusses his approach to mythology in his essay “The Style of the Mythical Age.” His focus is on understanding and using archetypes as a way of analyzing mythology. He says, “Myth is the archetype of every phenomenal cognition of which the human mind is capable,” (102). For Broch, Modernist literature is a return to the mythic; myth is the only way in which the world may be understo...