Myth, Mind and Religion: The Apocalyptic Narrative

Description

The French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss scoured the Amazon forest for the myths of its primitive peoples. He found that a certain logic governed the construction of these myths―his mythologique; he regarded this logic as innate in the human mind and thus universal. Despite this claim of universality, Lévi-Strauss deliberately sidestepped the myths of the biblical religions as well as the myths of modern societies. This proved to be a missed opportunity since these myths lend themselves very well to his mode of analysis. The apocalyptic narrative is the ongoing myth of Western society. It makes its first appearance in the Bible in the story of the Exodus and in the Passion of Christ. Its characteristic feature is its opening scenario of one or another form of unendurable oppression― whether the Pharaoh in Egypt for the Jews or the bondage of the body for Christians. “Lord and servant” is the binary pair that prevails and through a process of inversion leads to the Kingdom of Heaven (celestial or terrestrial). The work of Augustine and Luther follow suit as surprisingly enough, do the Lutheran Hegel and the Hegelian Marx. In every case, the initial oppression is inverted and a sublime destination ensues. A demonic version of the same apocalyptic narrative appears in the 1930s. The Nazis point to their own tale of “oppression” of the German people and in the same fashion proclaim the Dritte Tausendjährige Reich. It is a terrible irony but perhaps Lévi-Strauss’s mythologique may help us to see through the “glass” a little less darkly. Cover Contents Preface Notes Acknowledgments Chapter 1: The Hunt for "Alienation" Notes Chapter 2: Lévi- Strauss: "The Architecture of the Mind" The Ricoeur Seminar Edmund Leach Clifford Geertz Notes Chapter 3: The Hebrew Bible Notes Chapter 4: The Christian Bible Notes Chapter 5: The Replica The Second Adam Conclusion Appendix A—The Righteous Servant Notes Chapter 6: Augustine Notes Chapter 7: Luther The Theology of Perpetual Paradox “On The Freedom of a Christian” The Two Kingdoms The Theology of Negative Transcendence The Replica Effect Theology of the Cross Conclusion Appendix Semantics: Luther to Hegel Entäussern Aufheben Moment Umkehrung Unglückliches Bewusstsein Other Words Notes Chapter 8: Hegel Alienation and Freedom Lordship and Bondage The Theory of the State Notes Chapter 9: Marx Marx and Hegel Lordship and Bondage The Communist State Marx and Luther Notes Chapter 10: Nazism Why the Jews? The Nazi Paradise Notes Conclusion Notes Index About the Author