Christianity is a Myth

Mythology might be defined as stories about the gods that we do not believe to be true. For instance, no one living today believes Zeus is king of the gods (or that he exists at all). To us, Zeus is the mythic king of the gods. Indeed, the word "myth" is most often used this way as a modifier indicating the falsehood of what follows. So when people suggest that Christianity is a myth, what they mean is that it is a fantasy.

In the minds of these often well-educated people, going to church on Sunday makes no more sense than worshipping Zeus. They may even point out that back in the days of the Roman Empire, Zeus had temples full of worshippers just as Christ does today. But modern thinking - and this is where condescension begins - is able to avoid that trap of wasted time and effort. Simply put: Myth is old religion; Religion is new myth.

In the skeptic's favor it must be said that much of world mythology is hard to take seriously. The Greek and Roman gods, the source of our most familiar mythology, don't behave in a very "godlike" manner. In fact they often seem to have succumbed to the old maxim that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Zeus, the king of the gods, is a philanderer, sneaking down from Mt. Olympus to seduce human women. Hercules was the result of one such encounter. Aphrodite is jealous and proud. Ares is bloodthirsty. Dionysus is a lush. The whole group is hardly more impressive than the cast of your average soap opera.

In fact, it's hard to believe anyone ever took any of this seriously. But they did. Many of the temples are still standing. We may be tempted to ask "How could those people have been so naive?" Well, wait a minute. Before we start condescending again, let's take a look at some modern storytelling. We'll take a random sample from Soap Opera Digest. What follows is one character's exploits on the show Port Charles:

1997: Frank Scanlon, Jr. is introduced as a family guy who works as an EMT. Frank and Julie Devlin grow closer over the summer, and their friendship eventually turns into romance.
1998: Frank and Julie become involved with teen runaway Lark (Anastasia Horne), who is more than a handful. Lark steals, does drugs and is out to break up Frank and Julie so she can have Frank for herself. Frank is injured while preventing Lark from jumping off the General Hospital roof, and his condition is critical. Dr. Bennett Devlin comes to the rescue with an experimental drug, DL-56, which saves his life. Unfortunately, Frank becomes addicted to the drug; Frank adopts Lark; when Julie is arrested for the General Homicide murders, Frank stays by her side. Later, Julie surprises him with the news that she's pregnant with his child.
1999: Chris Ramsey and Frank create a deadly superflu when mixing other drugs with DL-56. Frank nearly dies, and the experience makes him kick his drug habit. Karen Wexler saves his life and stays with him while he detoxes.

And it goes on like this for another six years. Can you believe anyone watches this? Neither can I, but they do. Tens if not hundreds of thousands of people keep this show on the air five days a week. And that's just one of at least a dozen daytime soap operas. Millions of people watch this stuff. And if it's not soap operas, it's something just as silly. What is Oprah but an hour packed full of real life soap opera? What about Survivor, Temptation Island, or the Bachelor? All have manufactured scenarios which are no more realistic than what's going on in Port Charles. And let's not forget that WWF is still the highest rated show on cable. It's a soap opera in spandex, but teenage boys can't get enough of it. The fact is, we are all drawn to stories, and if we can't find a good one, we'll settle for whatever the rock is cookin'.

There is another interesting facet of our addiction to stories. We tend to idolize the people who tell them. This includes soap stars, movie stars, sports stars, directors, and, yes, even The Rock. The best of them are treated as if they are more than human, gods on earth, their every move influencing millions of people. That's why every night on CBS we get the half-hour nightly news with Dan Rather followed immediately by half an hour of Entertainment Tonight. On NBC it's Tom Brokaw followed by Extra! Half an hour to cover the news of the world followed by half an hour of celebrity fashion trends. Celebrities are everywhere, and most of them became celebrities because they were part of telling a story we liked.

Our obsession with storytellers can even become a religious zeal of sorts. In a recent religious survey in Australia, over 100,000 people listed their religion as "Jedi" (from the movie Star Wars). If you've ever been to a Star Trek convention (yes, I have, but I didn't wear a uniform) you'll see people who are intent on embracing a mythology that they know is not real (though they desperately wish it was). J.K. Rowlings, the author of the Harry Potter books, has a fanatical fan base, young and old alike, spanning the globe, who are willing to skip work or school, dress up in costumes, and show up at their local bookstore at midnight when a new book is released.

So what is it about a good story that gets people so excited? What is it that brings them to the point that they will profess adoration? It seems that there is a link between story and religion hidden somewhere in our nature. Let's examine that link more closely.

The One Story

Joseph Campbell, Professor of Comparative Mythology, spent his entire life studying the myths of every culture on earth. In 1949 he wrote a book called The Hero with a Thousand Faces which is now considered a classic in the field. In this book, he makes the case that many of the most popular myths and stories from around the world share a common underlying structure. He calls this structure the monomyth. The monomyth, also known as the hero's journey, is a pattern of story elements that occur in a predictable order, like a recipe.

Here is how Campbell summarizes the monomyth:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

Simple, generic, universal - it sounds vaguely like every action movie ever made. As it turns out, this is not far from the truth. For instance, consider this simple plot summary of Raiders of the Lost Ark. The similarities are instantly obvious.

Indiana Jones leaves home on the hunt for one of history's great artifacts, the Ark of the Covenant. He courageously battles Nazis and a sinister French archeologist named Belloq. He is captured but, in the end, God emanates from the Ark and destroys Belloq and the Nazis. Indy returns home with the Ark, but in an ironic twist the ultimate boon is packed away in obscurity.

Stages of the Journey

In order to fully appreciate the hero's journey, we willtake a more detailed look at its structure. What follows are the stages Campbell identified in Hero with a Thousand Faces, along with a few sentences to indicate the meaning of each.

Call to Adventure - The story begins with a summons. The herald who brings it is, "often dark, loathly, or terrifying, judged evil by the world." And yet the adventurer senses that, "if one could follow, the way would be opened through the walls of day into the dark where the jewels glow." These jewels are the hidden secrets of existence. To reach them the adventurer must brave the darkness of the unknown. Strangely, though, the mystery of the call is, "profoundly familiar," to the inner man.
Refusal of the Call - The herald invites the adventurer to travel, "away from the frequented paths of man." But for some the concerns of the world are not easily disregarded. The adventurer who refuses the journey that has been offered finds that, "his life feels meaningless." All his efforts become attempt to flee the powers that pursue. He lives in dread, awaiting, "the gradual approach of his disintegration."
Supernatural Aid - For those that embark upon the hero's journey, help arrives, usually in the form of a wise man or woman. The call to adventure is now seen to be the herald of this "initiatory priest."
Crossing the first Threshold - A borderland is reached between the ordinary world and the "zone of magnified power." Often a guardian is there to prevent unauthorized entrance. To traverse it the hero must be "released from ego." This is the necessary preparation for what comes next.
Belly of the Whale - This is the central point of the journey. Its essence is death and resurrection. The intrepid hero "goes inward to be born again." The adventurer who began the journey is no more. He or she is reborn as something greater.
Road of Trials - The hero now sees the world in a new light. He becomes aware that, "there is benign power everywhere supporting him in his superhuman passage." Indeed, "For the son who has grown to know the father, the agonies of the ordeal are readily born; the world is no longer a vale of tears but a bliss-yielding, perpetual manifestation of the Presence."
The Ultimate Boon - Having come through the journey this far, the hero wins the treasure he had sought. Most often the boon is immortality, the power of "sustaining substance."
Return - Finally, having received the reward, "the hero shall now begin the labor of bringing the runes of wisdom…back into the kingdom of humanity"

We've already looked briefly at Raiders of the Lost Ark, but let's consider the biggest film of all time: Titanic. Though it sometimes seems as if Jack is the main character, this is actually Rose's story. It is told in flashback in the film, but for simplicity, here is Rose's story in chronological order.

Rose is seventeen. She is being forced to marry Cal by her cold and calculating mother. Rose is so miserable she tries to kill herself, but is talked out of it by Jack, a 3rd class passenger and artist (the Call to Adventure). At first Rose is standoffish (Refusal of the Call). But under the knowing eye of Molly Brown (Supernatural Aid) she falls for Jack and leaves the first class passengers do go dancing with the regular people below decks (Crossing the Threshold). Rose's death and resurrection is a symbolic one. She transforms from silly rich girl to confident woman, even allowing Jack to sketch her in the nude. When Cal finds out about this, the Road of Trials begins. This is heightened by the sinking of the ship. In the end, the ultimate boon is not eternal life, but something close to it. Rose's is given a long (90+ years) life buoyed by Jack's unending, sacrificial love. We know from a brief scene early in the film that Rose returned from this adventure changed. She did not marry Cal or remain rich. She became an artist with a middle class life built on love rather than necessity. Her last act is to confirm the truth of what she has learned (love over status and money) when she casts the heart of the sea back into the waves.

It's a beautiful story. It's also fits the hero's journey pattern perfectly. Given time, it would not be difficult to show that these stages are present in all of our most beloved (and therefore top grossing) films. Star Wars, E.T., Spider Man, Lion King -- they all resonate with the hero's journey and, therefore, with people. The same pattern also describes the heroic tales of Hercules, Odysseus, Theseus and many more heroes of legend. It certainly includes virtually every fantasy/adventure story in the book market today, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings being a perfect example (another blockbuster. In other words, the monomyth is the pattern behind our ancient myths and it is still the bread and butter of world story telling. If we are addicts, the monomyth is the "nicotine" in our stories that keeps us coming back for more.

The question to ask is why? Clearly, there is something within us - within all of us -- that finds this story pattern satisfying. Why would this be so? Why this kind of story in particular?

A Riddle Solved

Consider the story of Christ. A call to adventure which leads him out of the ordinary world of divine existence to earth. An early refusal of the call at the wedding in Cana ("It is not my time") followed by a final purging of ego (40 days in the desert) and an encounter with the threshold guardian (Satan). This leads to the greatest story of death and resurrection ever told, a seizing of the ultimate boon (triumph over death) and a return to the Father so that the Holy Spirit might come to the church.

There is a connection here - an identity with the monomyth -- that is hard to ignore. At the very least, the honest skeptic must ask himself how it is that "death and resurrection" is found both at the core of mankind's being and as the central point of the Christian story? There are only two sensible options. Either Christianity was made up, like Titanic, to fit the monomyth, or the monomyth was made up, by God, to fit Christianity. If it is the first then Christianity is a lie. But even as a lie, Christianity seems amazing. At the least, it is a pure and perfect distillation of man's inner story. In other words, if Christianity is a lie, it is revealed to be merely the greatest story ever told, an unparalleled masterpiece that is still the number one blockbuster 2000 years later.

If it is the second, then God created our attraction to the monomyth formula so all of His creation would resonate with the Christian story. And, perhaps, so that we would always have hope and a sense of the path each of us would need to walk. The hero's journey is also our journey as we make our way towards faith. This is how ordinary people become heroes:

One is called - as Jesus did his disciples - "Follow Me". One has a choice - follow him into the unknown like Peter or refuse like the rich, young ruler. A further choice is offered as one understands what is required to reach the ultimate boon. Moving forward means submission to a God-directed life and leaving living-for-self behind. The symbol of acceptance is baptism, a symbolic death and resurrection. Having entered the holy nation, the new believer finds God aids him in the form of the Holy Spirit. He receives the boon of eternal life and, lastly, is enjoined to take this boon to others (the Great Commission).

If you are reading this then you have heard the herald's voice. The rest of your journey awaits.