{"id":16434,"date":"2018-02-12T09:47:34","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T14:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16434"},"modified":"2018-02-12T10:04:45","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T15:04:45","slug":"mythos-and-logos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16434","title":{"rendered":"Mythos and Logos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SR0vdvcdYG0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Mythos and Logos<br \/>\nMonday, February 12, 2018<\/p>\n<p>The Judeo-Christian creation story is told in the form of a cosmic poem (Genesis 1). The realm of myth, art, and poetry can heal and create coherence, connection, and deep trust for the human psyche much better than prose that \u201ctells it like it is.\u201d Rather than orient us toward solving a problem, symbolic language and images turn our focus toward being itself, toward meaning, purpose, and inner life forces. They evoke the depths hidden beneath the practical, self-centered ego, and speak to our personal unconscious\u2014as good therapy does\u2014and our collective unconscious too\u2014as story and myth often do.<br \/>\nThere are several levels of knowing and interpreting reality\u2014a \u201chierarchy of truths,\u201d as Pope Francis calls it. [1] Not all truths are of equal importance, which does not mean the lesser ones are untrue. So don\u2019t fight useless battles against them. Something might be true, for example, on a psychological, historical, or mythological level, but not on a universal level. Fundamentalists think the historical level is the \u201ctruest\u201d one, yet in many ways literalism is the least important meaning for the soul. Facts may be fascinating, but they seldom change our lives at any deep level. I do believe the \u201chistorical-critical\u201d method of interpreting Scripture is a helpful frame [2], without which fundamentalists create a fantasy that looks a lot like their own culture and preferred class perspective.<br \/>\nScholars since Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) have been making good use of a distinction between logos, or problem-solving language, and mythos. Logos language includes facts, data, evidence, and precise descriptions. Rob Bell describes how \u201clogos language and thinking got us medicine, got us airplanes. . . . For the past three hundred years we have had an explosion of logos language. . . . But the problem is, there are whole dimensions of our existence that require a different way of thinking.\u201d<br \/>\nBell rightly says, \u201cThe Bible is mostly written in mythos language. . . . Good religion traffics in mythos. . . . Mythos language is for that which is more than literally true. . . . Evolutionary science does an excellent job of explaining why I don\u2019t have a tail. It just doesn\u2019t do so well explaining why I find that interesting!\u201d [3] We need mythos language to express the more-than-factual meaning of experiences like falling in love, grief, and death.<br \/>\nGood religion, art, poetry, and myth point us to the deeper levels of truth that logos can\u2019t fully explain. Early Christians knew this; but the Western Church spent the last five centuries trying to prove that the stories in the Bible really happened just as they are described. For some Christians, it\u2019s imperative that the world was created in six literal days, otherwise their entire belief system falls apart. Christianity came to rely heavily on technique, formula, and certitude instead of the more alluring power of story, myth, and narrative. These give room for the soul, mind, and heart to expand. Ironically, from such an open and creative stance, we can actually solve problems much more effectively.<br \/>\nThe whole point of Scripture is the transformation of the soul. But when we stopped understanding myth, we stopped understanding how to read and learn from sacred story or Scripture. Children delight in hearing the same fantastical stories over and over again because they are open to awe, mystery, and discovery. Oh that we could all read the creation story with similar childlike wonder and open-heartedness!<\/p>\n<p>Gateway to Presence:<br \/>\nIf you want to go deeper with today\u2019s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation.<\/p>\n<p>========================<\/p>\n<p><strong>Are You Listening to God?<\/strong><br \/>\nBy Oswald Chambers<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>They said to Moses, &#8220;You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.&#8221; \u2014Exodus 20:19<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t consciously and deliberately disobey God\u2014 we simply don\u2019t listen to Him. God has given His commands to us, but we pay no attention to them\u2014 not because of willful disobedience, but because we do not truly love and respect Him. \u201cIf you love Me, keep My commandments\u201d (John 14:15). Once we realize we have constantly been showing disrespect to God, we will be filled with shame and humiliation for ignoring Him.<br \/>\n\u201cYou speak with us,\u2026but let not God speak with us\u2026.\u201d We show how little love we have for God by preferring to listen to His servants rather than to Him. We like to listen to personal testimonies, but we don\u2019t want God Himself to speak to us. Why are we so terrified for God to speak to us? It is because we know that when God speaks we must either do what He asks or tell Him we will not obey. But if it is simply one of God\u2019s servants speaking to us, we feel obedience is optional, not imperative. We respond by saying, \u201cWell, that\u2019s only your own idea, even though I don\u2019t deny that what you said is probably God\u2019s truth.\u201d<br \/>\nAm I constantly humiliating God by ignoring Him, while He lovingly continues to treat me as His child? Once I finally do hear Him, the humiliation I have heaped on Him returns to me. My response then becomes, \u201cLord, why was I so insensitive and obstinate?\u201d This is always the result once we hear God. But our real delight in finally hearing Him is tempered with the shame we feel for having taken so long to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mythos and Logos Monday, February 12, 2018 The Judeo-Christian creation story is told in the form of a cosmic poem (Genesis 1). The realm of myth, art, and poetry can heal and create coherence, connection, and deep trust for the human psyche much better than prose that \u201ctells it like it is.\u201d Rather than orient [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16434"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16434"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16436,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16434\/revisions\/16436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}