IAN (3/31)
>Aaron, you might try Joseph Campbell's "Parallel Myths."
YOEL (3/31)
>Who is Joseph Campbell? The reason I ask is this. I hired an employee once
>who worshipped at the temple of Joseph Campbell. Although he rejected
>Xtianity, he still believed in Jesus AND the Bible. He told me I was
>unhappy and would be unhappy until I accept God. He muttered constantly
>"the snake signifies change", which he said he got from Joseph Campbell.
>According to this person, Joseph Campbell was like Bill Moyers, finding
>truth in all religions.
IAN (3/31)
>I think they are quite a bit alike. Pam, my wife gave me the name of the book.
>>I only saw one thing that Bill Moyers did that interested me and that was
>years >ago. I haven't read either of there books.
WALT, SR (3/31)
>Joseph Campbell was a giant in the field of Mythology. He most definitely
>did *not* believe in JC or the bible. What he showed in his writings were
>the many parallels in the world's mythologies. I've got most of his works
>including "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", "Myths to Live By", "The Mythic
>Image", and The Masks of God series, which includes Creative, Primitive,
>Oriental and Occidental Mythologies,(each about 500 pages). I highly
>recommend them all, but his "Occidental Mythology" is especially pertinent
>to this list.(About $10.00).
CASEY (4/1)
I must agree with Walt, Sr. Joseph Campbell was indeed a giant in the field
of mythology! As a matter of fact, I credit him more for my personal
enlightenment, (which ultimately led to my becoming an atheist), than anyone
or anything else. I can still remember watching PBS the night Bill Moyers was
interviewing Campbell. I literally jumped up and said to my wife that this
guy was saying all the things that I had been wondering about for so long!
I immediately bought his book *Hero With a Thousand Faces*. I couldn't put it
down. I have since purchased and read everything Campbell has ever written.
(I even have his book *A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake* which is basically a
guide book on how to read James Joyce's *Finnegans Wake*. It's a big project
that I hope to complete some day.)
Many atheists have criticized Campbell for not being militant enough against
xianity. But I think that they have completely missed the point on this man.
In his very eloquent and unique way, he debunked ALL religions by simply
showing how they came from almost identical beginnings. IMO, the man was
truly a genius!
"Today we know-and know right well-that there was never anything of the kind:
no Garden of Eden anywhere on this earth, no time when the serpent could talk,
no prehistoric "Fall," no exclusion from the garden, no universal Flood, no
Noah's Ark. The entire history on which our leading Occidental religions have
been founded is an anthology of fictions. But these are fictions of a type
that have had-curiously enough-a universal vogue as the founding legends of
other religions, too. Their counterparts have turned up everywhere-and yet,
there was never such a garden, serpent, tree, or deluge."
(*Myths To Live By*, pg.25)
Chuck Casey