Religious Language: Myth

Guide to app usage

Religious Myth:

• A story that sets up a world by describing ultimate reality and its relationship to humanity.
  • Myths seek to explain the ultimate meaning of the universe (cosmos) and our existence, its ultimate origins, destiny, order (or disorder) and relationships.
  • Purpose = revelation of the nature of the sacred, the universe, and human nature.
  • In short, “How does reality makes sense in light of the sacred?"

• Myths seek to narrate or reveal a transcendent reality and its relation to ordinary reality.
• Mythic time transcends ordinary time.
• Mythic events transcend “ empirically observable" events.

• Myths do not aim at scientific truth
• Myths represent collective wisdom of a community over time
• Myths frequently communicate through exaggeration
• Myths provide a lense for seeing the world

• Note Well: Many of us may instinctively think of "myth" as something that is false or fictional. This is not how the term is used in this course.

Modern myths

Giving meaning

If "myth" is what gives meaning to the world we live in, organizes community, passes it on – what are our myths?

Mythologies around the world

Some examples of mythologies in other cultures. These examples invite us to ask about our own culture's mythologies.

Contemporary mythologies

modern mythology Here we might explore contemporary myths in our own culture: "like all myths and legends, modern mythology springs from a sense of life's wonder, excitement, mystery, and terror."

Mythology and Movies

Modern Myths in Movies and What's Missing . This web site gives some thought-provoking illustrations.