The Encyclopedia of World Religions

310 S myth and mythology

has just always existed, has important meaning for us living on it. For example, the creation account of J UDAISM and C HRISTIANITY found in the book of Genesis, at the beginning of the Hebrew Scriptures, tells us that God made the world as though it were something outside of himself, like a carpenter mak ing a box, then looked on it and saw that it was very good. He then placed human beings—also made as, so to speak, the work of his hands—into that creation, and gave them instructions. The creation story tells us that the world and the Creator of the world are not to be confused. The world is to be honored because it was made by God, but it is not the same as God. We humans can have a deep relationship of love, service, and obedience to God, but we must not say that we are God. All these very important ideas, central to Judaism and Christianity, are embedded in the cre ation myth. Compare that account with one from the V EDAS of India, which tells us that the world is a sacrifice made by Prajapati, a Creator God who made the world by dividing up his body so that his bones became the mountains, his blood the rivers, and so forth. Here is conveyed something told in much more philosophical language in later H INDU ISM , that God is not a Creator separate from the world, but the word is God, God in disguise, God playing hide-and-seek with himself, and to know God we do not look outside of the world, but into the depths of the world, into our own innermost nature. All the many creation myths of the world doubtless bear some such important message about the true nature of the world as seen by their tellers. One thing they tell that is important is that at the beginning humans were close to their Cre ator, one way or another. But as time went on, they lost that closeness, falling into forgetfulness of it or, like A DAM and E VE , being expelled from the pri mal garden. Next examine the role, in myth, of the hero, like R AMA or K RISHNA in India, or in Western lore St. George who slew the dragon, who defeats EVIL and perhaps establishes an ideal kingdom. In some ways even the divine prophets and saviors of the

great mystics. Probably the majority of religionists in the world, though, would say that while being a mystic may not be necessary to SALVATION , some mystical experience can deepen and enrich one’s spiritual life. Further reading: Emilie Griffin, ed. Evelyn Underhill: Essential Writings, (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2003); Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York: Schocken Books, 1995); D. T. Suzuki, Mysticism, Christian and Buddhist (New York: Routledge, 2002). myth and mythology A story that is religiously important, and the study of such stories. For the average person, a myth is simply a story that is not true: “that’s just a myth.” In religious studies, though, the meaning is rather different. It is taken to be a story that expresses the basic world view of a culture or religion in narrative form. It says some very important things about the way in which the people telling the story think about G OD , human nature, the origin and destiny of the world, how we should live our lives now, and how we can get into right relationships with the divine. For a myth is basically a story, but it is a story about ultimate things. In this respect, in the eyes of students of folklore, a myth differs from a fable or legend or fairytale. Those may be entertaining, and reveal such information as how the fox lost his tail or a certain town got its name. But myths tend to tell how the world was made and how SALVATION came into it. Some people may believe the myth stories literally, others take them as poetic renderings of ultimate things that are otherwise hard to put into words or to understand. Let us consider three types of religious myth: creation myths, hero / savior myths, and myths of ESCHATOLOGY , or the end of the world. The creation myths tell how God or the gods made the world “in the beginning.” People tend to believe that if you know where something came from, you know something very important about it and how to handle it. Thus whether the world came into being by divine design, or by accident, or