A Short History of Myth.Karen Armstrong
Karen Armstrong (b. November 14 1944 in Wildmoor, Worcestershire, England) is an author who writes on Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. . A Short History of Myth. Edinburgh: Canongate, 2005. What are myths? How have they evolved? Do we still need them? This book explores these questions in a concise and lucid way. Myths have always been used to help people accept their mortality and to provide courage to change and grow. In the Paleolithic Age, myths were used to help hunters go beyond their guilt of having to kill living creatures like themselves. In the Neolithic Era, myths became associated with climate and soil conditions. When early civilizations developed, and cities formed, myths helped people to structure meaningful existences in new social circumstances. The Axial Age German philosopher Karl Jaspers coined the term the Axial Age (Achsenzeit in the German language original) to describe the period from 800 BC to 200 BC, during which, according to Jaspers, similarly revolutionary thinking appeared in China, India and the Occident. (800-200 BCE BCE abbr. 1. Bachelor of Chemical Engineering 2. Bachelor of Civil Engineering BCE Abbreviation for before the Common Era. ) marked the beginnings of the religious era as we know it. Confucianism and Taoism developed in China, Buddhism and Hinduism Buddhism and Hinduism are two closely related religions that are in some ways parallel to each other and in other ways divergent in theory and practice. The Vedic, Buddhist and Jain religions share a common regional culture situated near and around north eastern India - grew in India, and monotheism monotheism (mŏn`əthēĭzəm) [Gr.,=belief in one God], in religion, a belief in one personal god. In practice, monotheistic religion tends to stress the existence of one personal god that unifies the universe. advanced in the Middle East. A commonality that these philosophies had was a new concern for individual conscience and morality, a concern that tried to address a gulf that was beginning to separate mortals from their gods. In the Post-Axial Period, 200 BCE-1500 CE, humans still relied on Axial-Age mythological insights. However, when the Roman Empire fell in the West, Saint Augustine developed the myth of Original Sin. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Christians rediscovered the works of Aristotle and Plato, which had been lost to them during the Dark Ages. The Great Western Transformation, 1500-2000, revolved around a new outlook--a pragmatic, scientific spirit. Western people began to look forward rather than backward. Copernicus, Bacon, and Newton pushed science ahead. Darwin with his theory of evolution went against the cosmogony cos·mog·o·ny n. pl. cos·mog·o·nies 1. The astrophysical study of the origin and evolution of the universe. 2. A specific theory or model of the origin and evolution of the universe. of Genesis and Marx argued that religion was a symbol of a sick society. Nietzsche declared God dead. In the twenty-first century, we live in a highly demythologized de·my·thol·o·gize tr.v. de·my·thol·o·gized, de·my·thol·o·giz·ing, de·my·thol·o·giz·es 1. To rid of mythological elements in order to discover the underlying meaning: world, unprecedented in the history of our species. Can people maintain a sense of compassion and veneration for our planet's resources in such spiritual circumstances? Time will tell. REVIEW BY MARTIN H. LEVINSON, PHD |
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