Rels. 205 Lecture 3.2It’s a Myth

What do we mean by "myth"?

“It’s a myth. Santa does not exist.”

Conspiracies sometimes happen

Hans Ernst Schneider = Hans Schwerte(1909-1945) (1945-1999)

Myth

“It’s a myth. Prof. Hexham didn’t win the $10,000,000 lottery.

Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976)Jesus Christ and Mythology (1960)

Demythologize

Myth and MystificationMircea Eliade

(1907-1986)

Joseph Campbell (1904-1987 )

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961)

Richard Noll and Adriane Berger

Tainted GreatnessAntisemitism and Cultural Heroesedited by Nancy A. HarrowitzTemple University Press, Philadelphia, 1994

Random HouseNew York, 1997

Princeton University PressPrinceton, 1994

Academics in DenialFascism and Myth

Robert S. Ellwood SUNY, New York, 1999

Bryan S. RennieSUNY, New York 1996

David CaveOxford University Press

New York, 1993

“Eliade had Jewish friends …”

JOSEPH GOEBBELS(1897-1945)

So did he, and a Jewish mistress too …

Judentum not individual Jews

JOHANN VON LEERS – OMAR AMIN(1902-1965)

Cf. Karl Marx, On the Jewish Question, Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbucher, 1844

http://www.radioislam.org/marx/marxen.htm

Spirituality

Alfred Rosenberg(1893-1946)

Stark Realities Fascism and Myth

Houston Stewart Chamberlain(1855-1927)

Myth in Anthropology

Bronislaw Malinowski, (1884-1942). "Myth in Primitive Psychology," in Magic, Science and Religion, (1954:96-111).

Summary of Malinowski’s View

It is essential to ask how are myths used in social situations where they are important and not to base theories on the reading of texts.

John Middleton (1921-)

"a myth is a statement about society and man's place in it and in the surrounding universe....Myths and cosmological notions are concerned with the relationship of a people with other peoples, with nature and with the supernatural."

John Middleton, ed., Myth and Cosmos, New York,

Natural History Press, 1967: x.

Myth and Narrative

Walter Fisher, Human Communication as Narration

Columbia, University of South Carolina Press, 1987

Political Myth

Henry Tudor, Political Myth,London, Macmillan, 1972

Myth defined:A story with culturally formative power that functions to direct the life and thought of individuals, groups or societies.

Types of Myth

Fiction

Semi-fiction

Historical stories

Fiction – Myths

The Bodhisattva in the deer park

Semi-Fictitious Myths

King Arthur

King Arthur and Glastonbury

Historical Myths

Life in the Cape

Burgersdorp

Crossing the Orange

The Trek

Trek Routes

Settlement

ZULULAND

Tugela

Zulu

Dingane (d. 1843)

Treachery

Troubles

Resolution

A SaviourAndries Pretorius (1789-1853)

Blood River

Defenses

Sacred Ground

Sacred Ground

Salvation History

Battle of Blood River 16 December 1836

The Vow

Church of the Vow

The First Church

The New World

Voortrekker Monument

Myth and Doctrine

“The Lord your God is One”

“Jesus is Lord”

God the FatherGod the SonGod the Holy Spirit

Three gods or One God?

What does the Hebrew Bible say?What does the New Testament say?What do Christians say?

Doctrines

That which is believed, a dogma. The official teachings or beliefs of a religious group.