Joseph Campbell: The Hero's Tale

The work of Joseph Campbell in the area of interpretation of myth has probably shaped my academic and spiritual life more deeply than many other more mainstream 'religious' teachers. Unpopular in the academic world for his lack of a doctoral degree, as well as his lifelong dedication to making Jungian and mythological studies accessible to the general public, Campbell built upon James Joyce's notion of a 'monomyth', a single tale which may be discerned beneath the wide variety of heroic tales which appear across cultures and time periods.  His classic book The Hero with a Thousand Faces was first published in 1949, and is acknowledged to be the inspiration behind such popular tales as the Star Wars films, the Matrix, and more recently, the Hunger Games series.  My own research locates similar themes in the stories of Christian saints of the seventh century, heroes of a difficult time in the life of the Church.

The religious side of Campbell's influence may be harder to place, though, as he consistently resisted describing himself as either a religious believer or a non-believer.  He saw mythology as a path to the transcendent, and acknowledged that for most people in the West, the name for that transcendent presence is 'God'.  And he devoted his energies to studying that path, and its goal, with passion and eloquence.

I do remember very clearly a day, perhaps 30 or 35 years ago, when I was reading Hero with a Thousand Faces, and realized that the story of Jesus Christ as we have it in the Gospels fit the heroic mythic cycle Campbell described.  Coming 'down' from heaven to earth, living a modest, ordinary life for his first 30 years, dedicating himself to the liberation of his people from the tyranny of sin and death, and willingly sacrificing himself to achieve his goal, then rising from the ashes of apparent defeat to assume heavenly kingship -- these are the marks of the divine hero, this is why Jesus can be proclaimed a universal savior -- not because everyone everywhere must become a Christian, but because his acts constitute the universal salvific path that each of us will follow, or be lost.

Campbell was an early teacher whose wisdom has stayed with me for many years.  He died in 1987, leaving behind a large body of work which remains fascinating for anyone who is curious about the dynamic world of mythology and its eternal importance in human life.  I warmly recommend reading whatever piques your curiosity, his foundation's website is here.