Christ As Hero

[Nathair/|\]

As I was just casually meditating and getting ready to sleep, I started thinking about how it's important that Christ hung on a tree between Heaven and Earth. It occurred to me that the Atonement fits all the elements of the Hero's Journey as described in Campbells The Hero with a Thousand Faces. I'm too tired to look them all up right now, but He was cut off from his mentor (Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?), passed beyond death, traveled to the underworld, returned with gnosis, and served as guide, teacher, initiator, psychopomp, and most importantly Savior of his people.

Yours under the sacred oaks,

Nathair /|\

[Calm]

The ultimate archetype.

[MormonMason]

Dennis R. MacDonald (The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark) suggested that Mark deliberately modeled his Gospel account of the life of Christ on the Homeric Epics to interest Gentile readers in the ultimate Hero, namely Christ. This filled a need since a great many people who learned Greek in ancient times did so by reading Homer.

[Brant Gardner]

Campbell expanded on the work of Lord Raglan, “The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth, and Drama.” It is really obvious that both considered Christ as the archetype for the hero, but removed the obvious to make it less clear that the idea had been constructed on the model of Christ's life. There is an interesting article (that I would have to look up) that indicates that the biography of Abraham Lincoln is the most complete representative of this "type," with Christ's life only in second place (even though he was the model!).

[Nathair/|\]

Campbell expanded on the work of Lord Raglan, “The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth, and Drama.” It is really obvious that both considered Christ as the archetype for the hero, but removed the obvious to make it less clear that the idea had been constructed on the model of Christ's life. There is an interesting article (that I would have to look up) that indicates that the biography of Abraham Lincoln is the most complete representative of this "type," with Christ's life only in second place (even though he was the model!).

Thank you, Dr. Gardner. I didn't know that.

[mfbukowski]

Ah yes, you're beginning to see already.

[DH]

Look into the ancient Sacred King cycle. Jesus fits in quite well there, too.

Edited October 22, 2012 by DH

[Brant Gardner]

Thank you, Dr. Gardner. I didn't know that.

Brother, not Dr. Makes a big difference to people who have actually earned the "Dr."

[DH]

Brother, not Dr. Makes a big difference to people who have actually earned the "Dr."

[Nathair/|\]

Brother, not Dr. Makes a big difference to people who have actually earned the "Dr."

Sorry, I thought you were one.