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The Word as True Myth: Interpreting Modern Theology

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In this suprisingly brief work, Dorrien offers a sympathetic yet critical reading of the various positions liberal theologians since Schleiermacher have taken vis-a-vis the role of myth in Christian theology. He demonstrates how this development has been affected by an understaniding of myth itself which has gone from myth as primitive superstition to myth as essential mode of religious expression and existence. As a bonus one gets a fine capsule summary of some of the major themes of theologians such as Barth, Tillich, R. Niebuhr, Bultmann and some other, lesser-known figures. An extended discussion of the evolving work of Langdon Gilkey provides a sort of pivot-point from "classical" liberalism to newer theological projects in which a more muscular notion of transcendence is recovered. The closing chapter offers tantalizing glimpses of a possible future work by Dorrien in the nature of a "new neo-orthodoxy" which goes beyond Barth's theological ghettoism. Included here is a highly salutary though somewhat clipped description of C.S. Lewis' own intriguing notions about the nature of myth in Christian doctrine. Get this one!