Posted on 09/21/2016 12:30:55 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
On an early Sunday morning, September 20, 1931, three 30-something English professors took a stroll together on Addison’s Walk in the grounds of Magdalen College at the University of Oxford:
32-year-old C. S. Lewis (Fellow and Tutor of English Literature at Magdalen College, Oxford),
39-year-old J. R. R. Tolkien (Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford),
and 35-year-old Hugo Dyson (Tutor and Lecturer at Reading University).
Their time together had begun the evening before at dinner, but their conversation went late into the night.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.thegospelcoalition.org ...
Later
When Lewis accepted Christ ‘elite’ God-haters turned against him and did all in their considerable power to make him as miserable as they were.
Three people die on the same day: Aldous Huxley, John F. Kennedy, and C. S. Lewis. Very different lives, concluding in very different ways.
Is mistletoe considered an assault tool now?
Bookmark
Now the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened.
He was referring to mostly Greek mythology and how it had worked itself on people. He claims the story of Christ also works like a myth but with the awareness that it actually happened.
Lewis and Tolkien Debate Myths and Lies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=39&v=NzBT39gx-TE
Worth a look.
bokmark
Is the story of Christ a myth? Certainly it is, the most powerful myth ever. Why? Because it is true. Christ is the Son of God. All other truth, all other myth, crashes upon the shore of Christ as Savior of the world.
Your statement and that of C.S. Lewis’ in the video I linked to, shows you two are of like mind, kindred spirits. That should be considered a great compliment.
As for me, I am not sure if the term ‘myth’ fits with the life of Christ. To me, Christ is real and His fleshly life in scripture is real, not a myth.
His resurrection may be considered by some as a ‘myth’, but to me it is true because if it were not, then all scripture fails and is false. So it must be true or we are all lost.
But then, I haven’t studied the nuances in meaning of the word ‘myth’.
Aargh, wrong article! Please ignore
bookmark
bfl
Not really answering your post, just throwing out some thoughts sparked by this thread.
In itself Myth simply means ‘story’ or dramatic narrative, typically with a supernatural component.
As Tolkien averred: human myth is sub-creation: because we are created, we yearn to create.
Not just the ancient world, but the modern world also has created thousands of stories that (at their best) elevate and enoble us. For instance: think of “Star Wars” or the “Magnificent Seven”. These stories are not true, but they capture noble truths and/or engender childlike wonder.
And - being fallen humans - we also create stories that degrade and shame. I’m thinking here of “Saw”, “Evil Dead” and similar movies and novels. They are not true, and they are also degrading and hollow.
Now the Myth of Christ is no mere human story: it is The Whole Drama of Reality and it is told by God. It is not only true and real, it is more true and more real than we can understand.
The God that is both Priest and Victim. The God who is forsaken by God on the cross. The God who feeds us with His Body and Blood.
We can walk round these tremendous truths and examine them again and again, but never get to the bottom of them.
Also: we’re not passive observers of This Story. We are an intrinsic part of it. We only exist, after all, because The Author of All Things wrote us into being.
I don’t remember who said it, but “the great thing about God is the care that he takes with his minor characters”.
Hope this is helpful.
Bump
Perhaps it would facilitate understanding to use the word "mythic" instead.
Meaning that a story can be 100% true and still carry nuances, ramifications
and impact on the human psyche that give it the force of myth,
but with the certainty of fact.
Beautifully written!
Thank you, you are very kind.
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