Customer Reviews

The Myths and Masks Of God (Joseph Campbell Audio Collection)

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In the editorial review printed below from some audio magazine, the reviewer accuses Campbell of having anti-Christian biases. If anything, Campbell cuts Christians too much slack in this series of lectures. Here Campbell explores the reasons for the decline of Christianity in our culture, and concludes that the problem lies in organized religions tradition of emphasizing the Christian mythology as historic fact. Campbell claims that this diminishes the effect of Christian symbolism, because when we discover scientific evidence that proves the mythology could not have been actual fact, we abandon the underlying truths the mythology was meant to illustrate. Campbell calls this a problem of reading poetry as prose, of reading metaphor as fact. This is the only thing in this series that could be remotely considered anti-Christian, and then only by a myopic pinhead. Anyone--Christian or otherwise--whose head wasn't firmly embedded in the nether regions of his or her anatomy would realize that this line of thought was liberating rather than negating.

Born: 26 March 1904, Died: 31 October 1987, he was raised Catholic but had a fascination with Native American myths at a young age. He is well know for several books and "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" and different lecture series.

The Myths and the Masks of God include:

Interpreting Symbolic Forms
Using the Garden of Eden and the symbols including the two trees and a few beings, they are compared to earlier versions from societies 7000 BCE through 1900 CE. Concluding with "feel free to read any form you like into these symbols and realize it will be a symptom of you."

Mythic Vision

Experiencing the Devine

History of the Gods

The Religious Impulse

This series of lectures was given in the seventies and it is interesting to see how it holds up today. He brings a different vision for most of us when he compares a religion where we identify with God vs. having a relationship to God. Of course those that have followed Joseph Campbell Already have the concepts but find it useful to hear his thoughts and compare them to what we already know.

The nice thing about the lectures is that every time we hear them we get a different slant on what we originally heard or glossed over. Learn more www.jcf.org

The subject of the question of if Joseph Campbell's attitude towards the christian tradition suffers from a certain sort of prejudice is a somewhat complicated subject in Campbell's body of work. As another reviewer has noted, Campbell's criticism of christianity is of its emphasis of facts... as a pose to the poetry... But I think Campbell himself would acknowledge ..or its a part of Jung's work.. who Campbell follows... that an emphasis of subject over object, or object over subject.. has more to do with psychology typology then truth.. That is God is about transcending the idea of God... Which is to say.. you can sort of argue that Campbell is right in his criticism and Christianity is right for talking about its valuing of a factual grounding as being one of the virtues of the Christian tradition... What I'm saying is that this is a complicated subject.. and in some way I think we have to try and understand Campbell's position in a historical perspective and what it meant in relationship to that historical perspective.. And anyway.. one can come to one's own positions on these sorts of things

Further.. this stuff is a little complicated for anyone who hasn't spent some time with Campbell... but on the other hand.. one of the virtues of a book on tape is you can always listen to it more then once.. So I don't think the issue of the complexity of the material should be taken as a strike against it.. if anything.. I'd argue that it adds to the value.. because it gives you a reason to listen to it again and again.. to contemplate it.. etc..

The last thing to be said is that Campbell is at his best as a lecturer.. Sure, his books are great.. but there's a whole other dimension to the man that is really only to be captured in his lectures.. on tape.. and In my view.. this is the best way to take in Campbell..