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Originally Posted by LMP
This is a rather objectionable statement. I do happen to know plenty about myth and fairy story, as you should know; yet because I view these issues through different lenses than you, I see things that you don't see, and vice versa. The lens through which I see these things is that the myths to which you refer are not unlike the "unknown god" on the Acropolis in the book of Acts that the apostle Paul uses to present the Christian gospel to the Greeks. In like manner, the myths are dim, altered, sometimes shattered, often debased and diffused, reflections of the truth as presented in the Christian bible. That is my lens.
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Joseph Campbell pointed out the irrationality of Paul's action re the Unknown God. Saying 'I know something you don't know about your own Gods' was at best ignorant & at worst insulting. I don't recall him going to any of the Athenians & asking them to explain their beliefs, or what the statue symbolised. To claim that he was revealing the hidden truth to them simply showed that he had not the faintest grasp of philosophy. The 'Unknown God' symbolised the mystery of God, the Cloud of Unknowing, those things about Deity which cannot be known, & ultimately a humble & very public statement on the part of the Greeks that there are mysteries beyond human understanding. Paul coming along & claiming to know those mysteries was tantamount to telling them he knew the whole mystery of God (ie that he could explain what God was). The reaction of the majority of Athenians was quite understandable.
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In like manner, the myths are dim, altered, sometimes shattered, often debased and diffused, reflections of the truth as presented in the Christian bible.
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I suspect that our forefathers would find that statement quite 'objectionable'. I think our 'pre-Christian' ancestors saw their religious traditions (which is what myths were) as quite 'whole'. The idea that because Christianity contains elements that can be identified with aspects of other religious traditions it is Christianity which has the 'true' version & the others are all the result of ignorant savages struggling to get at the 'Truth' simply displays the same kind of hubris & ignorance as Paul displayed.
Plus, I think you'll find that to the extent that myths are 'dim, altered, sometimes shattered, often debased and diffused' it is pretty much down the early Christians destructive hatred of anything non-Christian. The great artworks of Antiquity lost, destroyed, defaced, the stories, the sacred places, twisted, corrupted & made to serve the 'new religion' is both beyond count & almost beyond mourning. For Christians (including Lewis & Tolkien) whose forerunners revelled in that very destruction to effectively look on what had survived & say 'Well, look at that confused mess! Its all quite hopeless, but there are sure signs there that they were struggling to be like us.' merely adds insult to injury. Is it not equally possible that it is Christianity that is a 'dim, altered, sometimes shattered, often debased and diffused, reflection of the truth as presented in the Pagan traditions - after all any objective observer can find more of Hellenism (where demi-gods, virgin births & the like abound) than Judaism in the Christian story?
Sorry to rant - but I hope, as G. K. Chesterton said that one should “never let a quarrel get in the way of a good argument.”