Christian mythology
Christian mythology is a body of stories that explains or symbolizes Christian beliefs. A
Christian myth is a religious story that Christians consider to have deep explanatory or symbolic significance. Christian mythology can also be taken to refer to the entire mythos surrounding the Christian religious system, including the various narratives of both the
Old and
New Testaments.
Christian
mythology, without addressing any issues of core beliefs of
Christianity, includes the body of
legendary stories that have accumulated around
New Testament figures and elaborates upon the lives of the
Saints, to emphasize, explain, or embody Christian beliefs. The legendary details of the career of
Pontius Pilate are prime examples of Christian mythology. Many of the common themes in
hagiographies are among the conventions of Christian mythography.
These stories include many that do not come from
canonical Christian texts and still do illustrate
Christian themes. Other stories that are intended to foster Christian values, or address specifically Christian spiritual traditions, may be included in Christian mythology. These stories are considered by some Christian journalists, theologians, and academics (see citations below) to constitute a body of
Christian mythology. Stories which were once taken as true but are no longer accepted by most Christians are most easily identified as Christian mythology, such as the tale of
Saint George or
Saint Valentine.
Works such as the epic poem
Beowulf (c. 700-1000 CE) and other works of the period, suggest that the actual adoption of a Christian beliefs was a very slow and gradual process, as they permeated society, existing as a combination of both
Christian and
pagan beliefs through the centuries.
In theological and academic studies, describing a story as
myth sometimes, but not necessarily, implies falsehood. A true story can also be symbolic and explanatory. However, in common usage a
myth is a story that is not true. Therefore to describe Bible stories and deeply held beliefs as 'myth' is frequently taken as an attack on those sources and on the beliefs which are based on them.
Many Christian scholars have adopted the terminology, and employ it without the connotation of disbelief (although almost always to distinguish their treatment of a story as a source of Christian belief, in contrast to literal history). In such a case the term
myth may be applied to many Christian stories, including Biblical narrative. For most people the categorisation of a story they believe to be true as
myth is taken as attack on that story, and frequently as an attack on Christianity.
However those Christians who do not accept the Bible as a literal history will accept those parts which they do not consider literal as
myth.
A selection of such stories with mythic content might include:
* Stories from the
apocryphal books.
* Traditional stories such as that of
Abgarus of Edessa.
* Stories about the
Holy Grail.
* Elaborations or amendments to Biblical tales, such as the tales of
Salomé, the
Three Wise Men, or St.
Dismas.
* Names and biographical details supplied for unnamed Biblical characters: see
List of names for the Biblical nameless* Literary treatments of traditional Biblical lore, such as
Paradise Lost and
Paradise Regained by
John Milton* Literary treatments of themes from Christian
theology or
eschatology such as the
Divine Comedy by
Dante Alighieri* Tales of saints (
hagiographies) whose historicity is doubtful, like
Saint Christopher or St.
Catherine of Alexandria *
Miraculous stories of saints such as are found in
Jacobus de Voragine's
Golden Legend.
* The legends of
King Arthur and other tales of
medieval chivalry, especially the
Quest for the
Holy Grail.
* Legendary history of the Christian
churches, such as the tales from the
Crusades or the
paladins of
Charlemagne in medieval
romance.
* Stories about
angels,
guardian angels,
devils, and tales of making pacts with
the Devil (see e.g.
Faust).
Narrative fictions with Christian content may fall within the category of Christian mythology. A case in point is the historical and canonized
Brendan of Clonfort, a 6th century Irish churchman and founder of abbeys. Round his authentic figure was woven a tissue that belongs more to
legend than mythology, the
Navigatio or "Journey of Brendan". In this narrative Brendan and his shipmates encounter sea monsters, a
paradisal island and a floating ice island inhabited by a holy hermit: literal-minded devotés still seek to identify "Brendan's islands" in actual geography.
Many fictions written to personalize Christian themes are better regarded as
allegory. Examples of these might include:
*
Pilgrim's Progress by
John Bunyan.
*
The Chronicles of Narnia by
C. S. LewisSome Christians discover Christian themes in
The Lord of the Rings and other works by
J.R.R. Tolkien. Though the author adamantly denied that his story was to be taken as an allegory, he admitted to influence from his own experience, which included devout Catholicism.
From the time of
St. Augustine in the fifth century to the
Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, biblical stories provided the framework of European
mythology. Other myths found in different parts of Europe were Christianized and incorporated into this framework. Stories such as that of
Beowulf and Icelandic, Norse, and Germanic sagas were reinterpreted and given Christian meanings. The legend of
King Arthur and the quest for the
Holy Grail is a striking example (Treharne 1971). The thrust of incorporation took on one of two directions. When Christianity was on the advance, pagan myths were Christianized; when it was in retreat, Bible stories were mythologized, sometimes into foreign myths.
Since the end of the eighteenth century, biblical stories have ceased to provide the central mythology of Western society. Owing to the scepticism of the Enlightenment and nineteenth-century freethinking, most Westerners no longer find in Christianity the basic imaginative and mythological framework by which they understand their place in the world. While many people still profess to be Christians, on the whole, Christian belief is restricted to the realm of private spirituality, and as a result Western mythologies now lack a strong Christian content at both their popular and official levels.
Certain subgroups within modern society still retain a strong element of Christian mythology in their understanding of life. It is also true that Christian values often inform law and other official elements within different Western societies, but nowhere today do we find biblical mythology providing both the popular and official myths of modern industrial society.
*
Religion and mythology*
Biblical mythology*Louis A. Markos in
Myth Matters, from
Christianity Today magazine. Quote: "just as Christ came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it, so he came not to put an end to myth but to take all that is most essential in the myth up into himself and make it real."
*Mark Filiatreau in
A Master of Imaginative Fiction, from
BreakPoint Online. Quote: "Classics of Christian Myth -- MacDonald’s key mythic works include five full-length books, which we’ll introduce here."
*Abstract of the
Collected Works of C. G. Jung, from
The CG Jung page. Quote: "The astrological characteristics of the fish are seen to contain the essential components of the Christian myth."
*James W. Marchand in
Christian Parallels to Norse Myth, from the Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois. Quote: "This reluctance to weigh fairly the possibility of the influence of Christian myth on Norse myth has had a number of unfortunate consequences. The most unfortunate is the resolute refusal on the part of most students of Norse myth to look at medieval Christian myth."
