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Joseph Campbell - Wikipedia

Joseph Campbell - Wikipedia

Joseph Campbell

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Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell (cropped).png
Campbell in the late 1970s
Born
Joseph John Campbell

March 26, 1904
White Plains, New York, US
DiedOctober 30, 1987 (aged 83)
Honolulu, Hawaii, US
Spouse(s)
 
​
(m. 1938)​
Academic background
Alma materColumbia University
Academic advisorsRoger Sherman Loomis[1]
Influences
Academic work
DisciplineLiterature
Sub-disciplineComparative mythology
InstitutionsSarah Lawrence College
Notable worksThe Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949)
Notable ideasMonomyth
Influenced

Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience. Campbell's best-known work is his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), in which he discusses his theory of the journey of the archetypal hero shared by world mythologies, termed the monomyth.

Since the publication of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell's theories have been applied by a wide variety of modern writers and artists. His philosophy has been summarized by his own often repeated phrase: "Follow your bliss."[6] He gained recognition in Hollywood when George Lucas credited Campbell's work as influencing his Star Wars saga.[7]

Campbell's approach to folklore topics such as myth and his influence on popular culture has been the subject of criticism, including from folklorists, academics in folklore studies.[8][9][10]

Life[edit]

Background[edit]

Joseph Campbell was born in White Plains, New York,[11] on March 26, 1904, the elder son of hosiery importer and wholesaler[12] Charles William Campbell, from Waltham, Massachusetts, and Josephine (née Lynch), from New York.[13][14] Campbell was raised in an upper-middle-class Irish Catholic family; he related that his paternal grandfather Charles had been "a peasant" who came to Boston from County Mayo in Ireland, and became the gardener and caretaker at the Lyman estate at Waltham, where his son Charles William Campbell grew up and became a successful salesman at a department store prior to establishing his hosiery business.[15][16] During his childhood, he moved with his family to nearby New Rochelle, New York. In 1919, a fire destroyed the family home in New Rochelle, killing his maternal grandmother and injuring his father, who tried to save her.[17][18]

In 1921, Campbell graduated from the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut. While at Dartmouth College he studied biology and mathematics, but decided that he preferred the humanities. He transferred to Columbia University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature in 1925 and a Master of Arts degree in medieval literature in 1927. At Dartmouth he had joined Delta Tau Delta. An accomplished athlete, he received awards in track and field events, and, for a time, was among the fastest half-mile runners in the world.[19]

In 1924, Campbell traveled to Europe with his family. On the ship during his return trip he encountered the messiah elect of the Theosophical Society, Jiddu Krishnamurti; they discussed Indian philosophy, sparking in Campbell an interest in Hindu and Indian thought.[20][21] In 1927, he received a fellowship from Columbia University to study in Europe. Campbell studied Old French, Provençal, and Sanskrit at the University of Paris and the University of Munich. He learned to read and speak French and German.[22]

On his return to Columbia University in 1929, Campbell expressed a desire to pursue the study of Sanskrit and modern art in addition to medieval literature. Lacking faculty approval, Campbell withdrew from graduate studies. Later in life he jested that it is a sign of incompetence to have a PhD in the liberal arts, the discipline covering his work.[23]

The Great Depression[edit]

With the arrival of the Great Depression, Campbell spent the next five years (1929–1934) living in a rented shack in Woodstock, New York.[24] There, he contemplated the next course of his life[25] while engaged in intensive and rigorous independent study. He later said that he "would divide the day into four three-hour periods, of which I would be reading in three of the three-hour periods, and free one of them ... I would get nine hours of sheer reading done a day. And this went on for five years straight."[26]

Campbell traveled to California for a year (1931–1932), continuing his independent studies and becoming close friends with the budding writer John Steinbeck and his wife Carol. Campbell had met Carol's sister, Idell, on a Honolulu cruise and she introduced him to the Steinbecks. Campbell had an affair with Carol.[27][28] On the Monterey Peninsula, Campbell, like John Steinbeck, fell under the spell of the marine biologist Ed Ricketts (the model for "Doc" in Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row as well as central characters in several other novels).[29] Campbell lived for a while next door to Ricketts, participated in professional and social activities at his neighbor's, and accompanied him, along with Xenia and Sasha Kashevaroff, on a 1932 journey to Juneau, Alaska on the Grampus.[30] Campbell began writing a novel centered on Ricketts as a hero but, unlike Steinbeck, did not complete his book.[31]

Bruce Robison writes that

Campbell would refer to those days as a time when everything in his life was taking shape. ... Campbell, the great chronicler of the "hero's journey" in mythology, recognized patterns that paralleled his own thinking in one of Ricketts's unpublished philosophical essays. Echoes of Carl Jung, Robinson Jeffers and James Joyce can be found in the work of Steinbeck and Ricketts as well as Campbell.[32]

Campbell continued his independent reading while teaching for a year in 1933 at the Canterbury School, during which time he also attempted to publish works of fiction. While teaching at the Canterbury School, Campbell sold his first short story Strictly Platonic to Liberty magazine.[33][34]

Sarah Lawrence College[edit]

In 1934, Campbell accepted a position as Professor of Literature at Sarah Lawrence College. In 1938, he married one of his former students, the dancer-choreographer Jean Erdman. For most of their 49 years of marriage they shared a two-room apartment in Greenwich Village in New York City. In the 1980s they also purchased an apartment in Honolulu and divided their time between the two cities. They did not have any children.

Early in World War II, Campbell attended a lecture by the Indologist Heinrich Zimmer; the two men became good friends. After Zimmer's death, Campbell was given the task of editing and posthumously publishing Zimmer's papers, which he would do over the following decade.

In 1955–1956, as the last volume of Zimmer's posthumous (The Art of Indian Asia, Its Mythology and Transformations) was finally about to be published, Campbell took a sabbatical from Sarah Lawrence College and traveled, for the first time, to Asia. He spent six months in southern Asia (mostly India) and another six in East Asia (mostly Japan). This year had a profound influence on his thinking about Asian religion and myth, and also on the necessity for teaching comparative mythology to a larger, non-academic audience.[35]

In 1972, Campbell retired from Sarah Lawrence College, after having taught there for 38 years.

Later life and death[edit]

Joseph Campbell with Jonathan Young, 1985.

Campbell attended a Grateful Dead concert in 1986, and marveled that "Everyone has just lost themselves in everybody else here!" With the Grateful Dead, Campbell put on a conference called "Ritual and Rapture from Dionysus to the Grateful Dead".[36]

Campbell died at his home in Honolulu, Hawaii, on October 30, 1987, from complications of esophageal cancer.[37][38] Before his death he had completed filming the series of interviews with Bill Moyers that aired the following spring as The Power of Myth. He is buried in O'ahu Cemetery, Honolulu.

Influences[edit]

Art, literature, philosophy[edit]

Campbell often referred to the work of modern writers James Joyce and Thomas Mann in his lectures and writings, as well as to the art of Pablo Picasso. He was introduced to their work during his stay as a graduate student in Paris. Campbell eventually corresponded with Mann.[39]

The works of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche had a profound effect on Campbell's thinking; he quoted their writing frequently.[40]

The "follow your bliss" philosophy attributed to Campbell following the original broadcast of The Power of Myth (see below) derives from the Hindu Upanishads; however, Campbell was possibly also influenced by the 1922 Sinclair Lewis novel Babbitt. In The Power of Myth, Campbell quotes from the novel:

Campbell: Have you ever read Sinclair Lewis' Babbitt?
Moyers: Not in a long time.
Campbell: Remember the last line? "I've never done a thing I wanted to do in all my life." That's the man who never followed his bliss.[41]

Psychology and anthropology[edit]

The anthropologist Leo Frobenius and his disciple Adolf Ellegard Jensen were important to Campbell's view of cultural history. Campbell was also influenced by the psychological work of Abraham Maslow and Stanislav Grof.

Campbell's ideas regarding myth and its relation to the human psyche are dependent in part on the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud, but in particular on the work of Jung, whose studies of human psychology greatly influenced Campbell. Campbell's conception of myth is closely related to the Jungian method of dream interpretation, which is heavily reliant on symbolic interpretation. Jung's insights into archetypes were heavily influenced by the Bardo Thodol (also known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead). In his book The Mythic Image, Campbell quotes Jung's statement about the Bardo Thodol, that it

belongs to that class of writings which not only are of interest to specialists in Mahayana Buddhism, but also, because of their deep humanity and still deeper insight into the secrets of the human psyche, make an especial appeal to the layman seeking to broaden his knowledge of life ... For years, ever since it was first published, the Bardo Thodol has been my constant companion, and to it I owe not only many stimulating ideas and discoveries, but also many fundamental insights.[42]

Comparative mythology and Campbell's theories[edit]

Monomyth[edit]

Main article: Monomyth

Campbell's concept of monomyth (one myth) refers to the theory that sees all mythic narratives as variations of a single great story. The theory is based on the observation that a common pattern exists beneath the narrative elements of most great myths, regardless of their origin or time of creation. Campbell often referred to the ideas of Adolf Bastian and his distinction between what he called "folk" and "elementary" ideas, the latter referring to the prime matter of monomyth while the former to the multitude of local forms the myth takes in order to remain an up-to-date carrier of sacred meanings. The central pattern most studied by Campbell is often referred to as the hero's journey and was first described in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949).[43] An enthusiast of novelist James Joyce,[44] Campbell borrowed the term monomyth from Joyce's Finnegans Wake.[45] Campbell also made heavy use of Carl Jung's theories on the structure of the human psyche, and he often used terms such as anima/animus and ego consciousness.

As a strong believer in the psychic unity of mankind and its poetic expression through mythology, Campbell made use of the concept to express the idea that the whole of the human race can be seen as engaged in the effort of making the world "transparent to transcendence" by showing that underneath the world of phenomena lies an eternal source which is constantly pouring its energies into this world of time, suffering, and ultimately death. To achieve this task one needs to speak about things that existed before and beyond words, a seemingly impossible task, the solution to which lies in the metaphors found in myths. These metaphors are statements that point beyond themselves into the transcendent. The Hero's Journey was the story of the man or woman who, through great suffering, reached an experience of the eternal source and returned with gifts powerful enough to set their society free.

As this story spread through space and evolved through time, it was broken down into various local forms (masks), depending on the social structures and environmental pressures that existed for the culture that interpreted it. The basic structure, however, has remained relatively unchanged and can be classified using the various stages of a hero's adventure through the story, stages such as the Call to Adventure, Receiving Supernatural Aid, Meeting with the Goddess/Atonement with the Father and Return. These stages, as well as the symbols one encounters throughout the story, provide the necessary metaphors to express the spiritual truths the story is trying to convey. Metaphors for Campbell, in contrast with similes which make use of the word like, pretend to a literal interpretation of what they are referring to, as in the sentence "Jesus is the Son of God" rather than "the relationship of man to God is like that of a son to a father".[46]

In the 2000 documentary Joseph Campbell: A Hero's Journey, he explains God in terms of a metaphor:

God is a metaphor for a mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought, even the categories of being and non-being. Those are categories of thought. I mean it's as simple as that. So it depends on how much you want to think about it. Whether it's doing you any good. Whether it is putting you in touch with the mystery that's the ground of your own being. If it isn't, well, it's a lie. So half the people in the world are religious people who think that their metaphors are facts. Those are what we call theists. The other half are people who know that the metaphors are not facts. And so, they're lies. Those are the atheists.[47]

Some scholars have disagreed with the concept of the "monomyth" because of its oversimplification of different cultures. According to Robert Ellwood, "A tendency to think in generic terms of people, races ... is undoubtedly the profoundest flaw in mythological thinking."[48]

Functions of myth[edit]

Campbell often described mythology as having a fourfold function within human society. These appear at the end of his work The Masks of God: Creative Mythology, as well as various lectures.[49]

The Mystical/Metaphysical Function
Awakening and maintaining in the individual a sense of awe and gratitude before the 'mystery of being' and his or her participation in it
According to Campbell, the absolute mystery of life, what he called transcendent reality, cannot be captured directly in words or images. Symbols and mythic metaphors on the other hand point outside themselves and into that reality. They are what Campbell called "being statements"[49] and their enactment through ritual can give to the participant a sense of that ultimate mystery as an experience. "Mythological symbols touch and exhilarate centers of life beyond the reach of reason and coercion.... The first function of mythology is to reconcile waking consciousness to the mysterium tremendum et fascinans of this universe as it is."[50]
The Cosmological Function
Explaining the shape of the universe
For pre-modern societies, myth also functioned as a proto-science, offering explanations for the physical phenomena that surrounded and affected their lives, such as the change of seasons and the life cycles of animals and plants.
The Sociological Function
Validate and support the existing social order
Ancient societies had to conform to an existing social order if they were to survive at all. This is because they evolved under "pressure" from necessities much more intense than the ones encountered in our modern world. Mythology confirmed that order and enforced it by reflecting it into the stories themselves, often describing how the order arrived from divine intervention. Campbell often referred to these "conformity" myths as the "Right Hand Path" to reflect the brain's left hemisphere's abilities for logic, order and linearity. Together with these myths however, he observed the existence of the "Left Hand Path", mythic patterns like the "Hero's Journey" which are revolutionary in character in that they demand from the individual a surpassing of social norms and sometimes even of morality.[51]
The Pedagogical/Psychological Function
Guide the individual through the stages of life
As a person goes through life, many psychological challenges will be encountered. Myth may serve as a guide for successful passage through the stages of one's life.

Evolution of myth[edit]

Campbell's view of mythology was by no means static and his books describe in detail how mythologies evolved through time, reflecting the realities in which each society had to adjust.[a] Various stages of cultural development have different yet identifiable mythological systems. In brief these are:

The Way of the Animal Powers
Hunting and gathering societies
At this stage of evolution religion was animistic, as all of nature was seen as being infused with a spirit or divine presence. At center stage was the main hunting animal of that culture, whether the buffalo for Native Americans or the eland for South African tribes, and a large part of religion focused on dealing with the psychological tension that came from the reality of the necessity to kill versus the divinity of the animal. This was done by presenting the animals as springing from an eternal archetypal source and coming to this world as willing victims, with the understanding that their lives would be returned to the soil or to the Mother through a ritual of restoration.[52] The act of slaughter then becomes a ritual where both parties, animal and mankind, are equal participants. In Mythos and The Power of Myth,[53] Campbell recounts the story he calls "The Buffalo's Wife" as told by the Blackfoot tribe of North America. The story tells of a time when the buffalos stopped coming to the hunting plains, leaving the tribe to starve. The chief's daughter promises to marry the buffalo chief in return for their reappearance, but is eventually spared and taught the buffalo dance by the animals themselves, through which the spirits of their dead will return to their eternal life source. Indeed, Campbell taught that throughout history mankind has held a belief that all life comes from and returns to another dimension which transcends temporality, but which can be reached through ritual.
The Way of the Seeded Earth
Early agrarian societies
Beginning in the fertile grasslands of the Levant and the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia in the Bronze Age and moving to Europe, the practice of agriculture spread along with a new way of understanding mankind's relationship to the world. At this time the earth was seen as the Mother, and the myths focused around Her life-giving powers. The plant and cultivation cycle was mirrored in religious rituals which often included human sacrifice, symbolic or literal.[54] The main figures of this system were a female Great Goddess, Mother Earth, and her ever-dying and ever-resurrected son/consort, a male God. At this time the focus was to participate in the repetitive rhythm the world moved in expressed as the four seasons, the birth and death of crops and the phases of the moon. At the center of this motion was the Mother Goddess from whom all life springs and to whom all life returns. This often gave Her a dual aspect as both mother and destroyer.
The Way of the Celestial Lights
The first high civilizations
As the first agricultural societies evolved into the high civilisations of Mesopotamia and Babylonia, the observation of the stars inspired them with the idea that life on earth must also follow a similar mathematically predetermined pattern in which individual beings are but mere participants in an eternal cosmic play. The king was symbolised by the Sun with the golden crown as its main metaphor, while his court were the orbiting planets. The Mother Goddess remained, but her powers were now fixed within the rigid framework of a clockwork universe.
However, two barbarian incursions changed that. As the Indo-European (Aryan) people descended from the north and the Semites swept up from the Arabian desert, they carried with them a male dominated mythology with a warrior god whose symbol was the thunder. As they conquered, mainly due to the superior technology of iron smithing, their mythology blended with and subjugated the previous system of the Earth Goddess. Many mythologies of the ancient world, such as those of Greece, India, and Persia, are a result of that fusion with gods retaining some of their original traits and character but now belonging to a single system. Figures such as Zeus and Indra are thunder gods who now interact with Demeter and Dionysus, whose ritual sacrifice and rebirth, bearing testament to his pre-Indo-European roots, were still enacted in classical Greece. But for the most part, the focus heavily shifted toward the masculine, with Zeus ascending the throne of the gods and Dionysus demoted to a mere demi-god.
This demotion was very profound in the case of the biblical imagery where the female elements were marginalized to an extreme. Campbell believed that Eve and the snake that tempted her were once fertility gods worshipped in their own right, with the tree of knowledge being the Tree of Life.[55] He also found significance in the biblical story of Cain and Abel, with Cain being a farmer whose agrarian offering is not accepted by God, while herder Abel's animal sacrifice is. In the lecture series of Mythos, Campbell speaks of the Mysteries of Eleusis in Ancient Greece, where Demeter's journey in the underworld was enacted for young men and women of the time. There he observed that wheat was presented as the ultimate mystery with wine being a symbol of Dionysus, much like in the Christian mysteries where bread and wine are considered to incarnate the body and blood of Jesus. Both religions carry the same "seeded earth" cosmology in different forms while retaining an image of the ever-dying, ever-resurrected God.
The Way of Man
Medieval mythology, romantic love, and the birth of the modern spirit
Campbell recognized that the poetic form of courtly love, carried through medieval Europe by the traveling troubadours, contained a complete mythology in its own right.[56] In The Power of Myth as well as the "Occidental Mythology" volume of The Masks of God, Campbell describes the emergence of a new kind of erotic experience as a "person to person" affair, in contrast with the purely physical definition given to Eros in the ancient world and the communal agape found in the Christian religion. An archetypal story of this kind is the legend of Tristan and Isolde which, apart from its mystical function, shows the transition from an arranged-marriage society as practiced in the Middle Ages and sanctified by the church, into the form of marriage by "falling in love" with another person that we recognize today. So what essentially started from a mythological theme has since become a social reality, mainly due to a change in perception brought about by a new mythology – and represents a central foundational manifestation of Campbell's overriding interpretive message, "Follow your bliss."
Campbell believed that in the modern world the function served by formal, traditional mythological systems has been taken on by individual creators such as artists and philosophers.[b] In the works of some of his favorites, such as Thomas Mann, Pablo Picasso and James Joyce, he saw mythological themes that could serve the same life-giving purpose that mythology had once played. Accordingly, Campbell believed the religions of the world to be the various culturally influenced "masks" of the same fundamental, transcendent truths. All religions can bring one to an elevated awareness above and beyond a dualistic conception of reality, or idea of "pairs of opposites" such as being and non-being, or right and wrong. Indeed, he quotes from the Rigveda in the preface to The Hero with a Thousand Faces: "Truth is one, the sages speak of it by many names."

Influence[edit]

Joseph Campbell Foundation[edit]

Main article: Joseph Campbell Foundation

In 1991, Campbell's widow, choreographer Jean Erdman, worked with Campbell's longtime friend and editor, Robert Walter, to create the Joseph Campbell Foundation.

Initiatives undertaken by the JCF include: The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell, a series of books and recordings that aims to pull together Campbell's myriad-minded work; the Erdman Campbell Award; the Mythological RoundTables, a network of local groups around the globe that explore the subjects of comparative mythology, psychology, religion and culture; and the collection of Campbell's library and papers housed at the OPUS Archives and Research Center.[57]

Film and television[edit]

George Lucas was the first Hollywood filmmaker to credit Campbell's influence. Lucas stated, following the release of the first Star Wars film in 1977, that its story was shaped, in part, by ideas described in The Hero with a Thousand Faces and other works of Campbell's. The linkage between Star Wars and Campbell was further reinforced when later reprints of Campbell's book used the image of Luke Skywalker on the cover.[58] Lucas discusses this influence at great length in the authorized biography of Joseph Campbell, A Fire in the Mind:

I came to the conclusion after American Graffiti that what's valuable for me is to set standards, not to show people the world the way it is... around the period of this realization… it came to me that there really was no modern use of mythology... The Western was possibly the last generically American fairy tale, telling us about our values. And once the Western disappeared, nothing has ever taken its place. In literature we were going off into science fiction… so that's when I started doing more strenuous research on fairy tales, folklore, and mythology, and I started reading Joe's books. Before that I hadn't read any of Joe's books… It was very eerie because in reading The Hero with a Thousand Faces I began to realize that my first draft of Star Wars was following classic motifs… So I modified my next draft according to what I'd been learning about classical motifs and made it a little bit more consistent... I went on to read The Masks of God and many other books.[7]

It was not until after the completion of the original Star Wars trilogy in 1983, however, that Lucas met Campbell or heard any of his lectures.[59] In 1984, Campbell gave a lecture at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, with Lucas in the audience, who was introduced through their mutual friend Barbara McClintock. A few years later, Lucas invited Campbell to watch the entire Star Wars trilogy at Skywalker Ranch, which Campbell called "real art".[60] This meeting led to the filming of the 1988 documentary The Power of Myth at Skywalker Ranch. In his interviews with Bill Moyers, Campbell discusses the way in which Lucas used The Hero's Journey in the Star Wars films (IV, V, and VI) to re-invent the mythology for the contemporary viewer. Moyers and Lucas filmed an interview 12 years later in 1999 called the Mythology of Star Wars with George Lucas & Bill Moyers to further discuss the impact of Campbell's work on Lucas' films.[61] In addition, the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution sponsored an exhibit during the late 1990s called Star Wars: The Magic of Myth, which discussed the ways in which Campbell's work shaped the Star Wars films.[62]

Many filmmakers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have acknowledged the influence of Campbell's work on their own craft. Christopher Vogler, a Hollywood screenwriter, created a seven-page company memo based on Campbell's work, A Practical Guide to The Hero With a Thousand Faces,[63] which led to the development of Disney's 1994 film The Lion King. Among films that many viewers have recognized as closely following the pattern of the monomyth are The Matrix series, the Batman series and the Indiana Jones series.[64] Dan Harmon, the creator of the TV show Community, often references Campbell as a major influence. According to him, he uses a "story circle" to formulate every story he writes, in a formulation of Campbell's work.[65]

Popular literature[edit]

After the explosion of popularity brought on by the Star Wars films and The Power of Myth, creative artists in many media recognized the potential to use Campbell's theories to try to unlock human responses to narrative patterns. Novelists,[66] songwriters,[67][68] video game designers[69] have studied Campbell's work in order to better understand mythology – in particular, the monomyth – and its impact.

The novelist Richard Adams acknowledges a debt to Campbell's work and specifically to the concept of the monomyth.[70] In his best known work, Watership Down, Adams uses extracts from The Hero with a Thousand Faces as chapter epigrams.[71]

Dan Brown mentioned in a New York Times interview that Joseph Campbell's works, particularly The Power of Myth and The Hero with a Thousand Faces, inspired him to create the character of Robert Langdon.[72]

"Follow your bliss"[edit]

One of Campbell's most identifiable, most quoted and arguably most misunderstood sayings was his admonition to "follow your bliss". He derived this idea from the Upanishads:

Now, I came to this idea of bliss because in Sanskrit, which is the great spiritual language of the world, there are three terms that represent the brink, the jumping-off place to the ocean of transcendence: Sat-Chit-Ananda. The word "Sat" means being. "Chit" means consciousness. "Ananda" means bliss or rapture. I thought, "I don't know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don't know whether what I know of my being is my proper being or not; but I do know where my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being." I think it worked.[73]

He saw this not merely as a mantra, but as a helpful guide to the individual along the hero journey that each of us walks through life:

If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are – if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.[74]

Campbell began sharing this idea with students during his lectures in the 1970s. By the time that The Power of Myth was aired in 1988, six months following Campbell's death, "Follow your bliss" was a philosophy that resonated deeply with the American public – both religious and secular.[75]

During his later years, when some students took him to be encouraging hedonism, Campbell is reported to have grumbled, "I should have said, 'Follow your blisters.'"[76]

Academic reception and criticism[edit]

Campbell's approach to myth, a genre of folklore, has been the subject of criticism from folklorists, academics who specialize in folklore studies. American folklorist Barre Toelken says that few psychologists have taken the time to become familiar with the complexities of folklore, and that, historically, Jung-influenced psychologists and authors have tended to build complex theories around single versions of a tale that supports a theory or a proposal. To illustrate his point, Toelken employs Clarissa Pinkola Estés's (1992) Women Who Run with the Wolves, citing its inaccurate representation of the folklore record, and Campbell's "monomyth" approach as another. Regarding Campbell, Toelken writes, "Campbell could construct a monomyth of the hero only by citing those stories that fit his preconceived mold, and leaving out equally valid stories… which did not fit the pattern". Toelken traces the influence of Campbell's monomyth theory into other then-contemporary popular works, such as Robert Bly's Iron John: A Book About Men (1990), which he says suffers from similar source selection bias.[9]

Similarly, American folklorist Alan Dundes is highly critical of both Campbell's approach to folklore, designating him as a "non-expert" and gives various examples of what he considers source bias in Campbell's theories, as well as media representation of Campbell as an expert on the subject of myth in popular culture. Dundes writes, "Folklorists have had some success in publicising the results of our efforts in the past two centuries such that members of other disciplines have, after a minimum of reading, believe they are qualified to speak authoritatively of folkloristic matters. It seems that the world is full of self-proclaimed experts in folklore, and a few, such as Campbell, have been accepted as such by the general public (and public television, in the case of Campbell)". According to Dundes, "there is no single idea promulgated by amateurs that has done more harm to serious folklore study than the notion of archetype".[8]

According to anthropologist Raymond Scupin, "Joseph Campbell's theories have not been well received in anthropology because of his overgeneralizations, as well as other problems."[10]

Campbell's Sanskrit scholarship has been questioned. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, a former Sanskrit professor at the University of Toronto, said that he once met Campbell, and that the two "hated each other at sight", commenting that, "When I met Campbell at a public gathering, he was quoting Sanskrit verses. He had no clue as to what he was talking about; he had the most superficial knowledge of India but he could use it for his own aggrandizement. I remember thinking: this man is corrupt. I know that he was simply lying about his understanding".[77] According to Richard Buchen, librarian of the Joseph Campbell Collection at the Pacifica Graduate Institute, Campbell could not translate Sanskrit well. However, Buchen adds that Campbell worked closely with three scholars who did translate Sanskrit well.[78]

Ellwood observes that The Masks of God series "impressed literate laity more than specialists"; he quotes Stephen P. Dunn as remarking that in Occidental Mythology Campbell "writes in a curiously archaic style – full of rhetorical questions, exclamations of wonder and delight, and expostulations directed at the reader, or perhaps at the author's other self – which is charming about a third of the time and rather annoying the rest." Ellwood says that "Campbell was not really a social scientist, and those in the latter camp could tell" and records a concern about Campbell's "oversimplification of historical matters and tendency to make myth mean whatever he wanted it to mean".[79] The critic Camille Paglia, writing in Sexual Personae (1990), expressed disagreement with Campbell's "negative critique of fifth-century Athens" in Occidental Mythology, arguing that Campbell missed the "visionary and exalted" androgyny in Greek statues of nude boys.[80] Paglia has written that while Campbell is "a seminal figure for many American feminists", she loathes him for his "mawkishness and bad research." Paglia has called Campbell "mushy" and a "false teacher",[81] and described his work as a "fanciful, showy mishmash".[82]

Campbell has also been accused of antisemitism by some authors. In a 1989 New York Review of Books article, Brendan Gill accused Campbell of both antisemitism and prejudice against blacks.[83] Gill's article resulted in a series of letters to the editor, some supporting the charge of antisemitism or accusing Campbell of having various right-wing biases, others defending him. However, according to Robert S. Ellwood, Gill relied on "scraps of evidence, largely anecdotal" to support his charges.[84] In 1991, Masson also accused Campbell of "hidden anti-Semitism" and "fascination with conservative, semifascistic views".[85] According to the Telegraph, the "fascist undercurrents" in Campbell's work and especially its influence on Star Wars have been called "a reminder of how easily totalitarianism can knock at any society's door."[86]

The religious studies scholar Russell T. McCutcheon characterized the "following [of] the bliss of self-realization" in Campbell's work as "spiritual and psychological legitimation" for Reaganomics.[87][undue weight? – discuss]

Works by Campbell[edit]

Early collaborations[edit]

Main article: A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake

The first published work that bore Campbell's name was Where the Two Came to Their Father (1943), an account of a Navajo ceremony that was performed by singer (medicine man) Jeff King and recorded by artist and ethnologist Maud Oakes, recounting the story of two young heroes who go to the hogan of their father, the Sun, and return with the power to destroy the monsters that are plaguing their people. Campbell provided a commentary. He would use this tale through the rest of his career to illustrate both the universal symbols and structures of human myths and the particulars ("folk ideas") of Native American stories.[citation needed]

As noted above, James Joyce was an important influence on Campbell. Campbell's first important book (with Henry Morton Robinson), A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake (1944), is a critical analysis of Joyce's final text Finnegans Wake. In addition, Campbell's seminal work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), discusses what Campbell called the monomyth – the cycle of the journey of the hero – a term that he borrowed directly from Joyce's Finnegans Wake.[45]

The Hero with a Thousand Faces[edit]

Main article: The Hero with a Thousand Faces

From his days in college through the 1940s, Joseph Campbell turned his hand to writing fiction.[88] In many of his later stories (published in the posthumous collection Mythic Imagination) he began to explore the mythological themes that he was discussing in his Sarah Lawrence classes. These ideas turned him eventually from fiction to non-fiction.

Originally titled How to Read a Myth, and based on the introductory class on mythology that he had been teaching at Sarah Lawrence College, The Hero with a Thousand Faces was published in 1949 as Campbell's first foray as a solo author; it established his name outside of scholarly circles and remains, arguably, his most influential work to this day. The book argues that hero stories such as Krishna, Buddha, Apollonius of Tyana, and Jesus all share a similar mythological basis.[89] Not only did it introduce the concept of the hero's journey to popular thinking, but it also began to popularize the very idea of comparative mythology itself – the study of the human impulse to create stories and images that, though they are clothed in the motifs of a particular time and place, draw nonetheless on universal, eternal themes. Campbell asserted:

Wherever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history, or science, it is killed. The living images become only remote facts of a distant time or sky. Furthermore, it is never difficult to demonstrate that as science and history, mythology is absurd. When a civilization begins to reinterpret its mythology in this way, the life goes out of it, temples become museums, and the link between the two perspectives becomes dissolved.[90]

The Masks of God[edit]

Published between 1959 and 1968, Campbell's four-volume work The Masks of God covers mythology from around the world, from ancient to modern. Where The Hero with a Thousand Faces focused on the commonality of mythology (the "elementary ideas"), the Masks of God books focus upon historical and cultural variations the monomyth takes on (the "folk ideas"). In other words, where The Hero with a Thousand Faces draws perhaps more from psychology, the Masks of God books draw more from anthropology and history. The four volumes of Masks of God are as follows: Primitive Mythology, Oriental Mythology, Occidental Mythology, and Creative Mythology.

The book is quoted by proponents of the Christ myth theory. Campbell writes, "It is clear that, whether accurate or not as to biographical detail, the moving legend of the Crucified and Risen Christ was fit to bring a new warmth, immediacy, and humanity, to the old motifs of the beloved Tammuz, Adonis, and Osiris cycles."[91]

Historical Atlas of World Mythology[edit]

Main article: Historical Atlas of World Mythology

At the time of his death, Campbell was in the midst of working on a large-format, lavishly illustrated series titled Historical Atlas of World Mythology. This series was to build on Campbell's idea, first presented in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, that myth evolves over time through four stages:

  • The Way of the Animal Powers – the myths of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers which focus on shamanism and animal totems.
  • The Way of the Seeded Earth – the myths of Neolithic, agrarian cultures which focus upon a mother goddess and associated fertility rites.
  • The Way of the Celestial Lights – the myths of Bronze Age city-states with pantheons of gods ruling from the heavens, led by a masculine god-king.
  • The Way of Man – religion and philosophy as it developed after the Axial Age (c. 6th century BCE), in which the mythic imagery of previous eras was made consciously metaphorical, reinterpreted as referring to psycho-spiritual, not literal-historical, matters. This transition is evident in the East in Buddhism, Vedanta, and philosophical Taoism; and in the West in the Mystery cults, Platonism, Christianity and Gnosticism.

Only the first volume was completed at the time of Campbell's death. Campbell's editor Robert Walter completed the publication of the first three of five parts of the second volume after Campbell's death. The works are now out of print. As of 2014, Joseph Campbell Foundation is currently undertaking to create a new, ebook edition.[92]

The Power of Myth[edit]

Main article: The Power of Myth

Campbell's widest popular recognition followed his collaboration with Bill Moyers on the PBS series The Power of Myth, which was first broadcast in 1988, the year following Campbell's death. The series discusses mythological, religious, and psychological archetypes. A book, The Power of Myth, containing expanded transcripts of their conversations, was released shortly after the original broadcast.

Collected Works[edit]

The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell series is a project initiated by the Joseph Campbell Foundation to release new, authoritative editions of Campbell's published and unpublished writing, as well as audio and video recordings of his lectures.[93] Working with New World Library and Acorn Media UK, as well as publishing audio recordings and ebooks under its own banner, as of 2014 the project has produced over seventy-five titles. The series's executive editor is Robert Walter, and the managing editor is David Kudler.

Other books[edit]

  • Where the Two Came to Their Father: A Navaho War Ceremonial (1943). With Jeff King and Maud Oakes, Old Dominion Foundation
  • The Flight of the Wild Gander: Explorations in the Mythological Dimension (1968). Viking Press
  • Myths to Live By (1972). Viking Press
  • Erotic irony and mythic forms in the art of Thomas Mann (1973; monograph, later included in The Mythic Dimension)
  • The Mythic Image[94] (1974). Princeton University Press
  • The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor As Myth and As Religion (1986). Alfred van der Marck Editions
  • Transformations of Myth Through Time (1990). Harper and Row
  • A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living (1991). Editor Robert Walter, from material by Diane K. Osbon
  • Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: On the Art of James Joyce[95] (1993). Editor Edmund L. Epstein
  • The Mythic Dimension: Selected Essays (1959–1987)[96] (1993). Editor Anthony Van Couvering
  • Baksheesh & Brahman: Indian Journals (1954–1955)[97] (1995). Editors Robin/Stephen Larsen & Anthony Van Couvering
  • Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor (2001). Editor Eugene Kennedy, New World Library ISBN 1-57731-202-3. first volume in the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell
  • The Inner Reaches of Outer Space[98] (2002)
  • Sake & Satori: Asian Journals – Japan[99] (2002). Editor David Kudler
  • Myths of Light: Eastern Metaphors of the Eternal[100] (2003). Editor David Kudler
  • Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation[101] (2004). Editor David Kudler
  • Mythic Imagination: Collected Short Fiction of Joseph Campbell ISBN 160868153X (2012)
  • Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine ISBN 1608681823 (2013). Editor Safron Rossi
  • Romance of the Grail: The Magic and Mystery of Arthurian Myth[102] (2015). Editor Evans Lansing Smith
  • The Ecstasy of Being: Mythology and Dance[103] (2017). Editor Nancy Allison
  • Correspondence 1927–1987[104] (2019, 2020). Editors Dennis Patrick Slattery & Evans Lansing Smith

Interview books[edit]

Audio recordings[edit]

  • Mythology and the Individual
  • The Power of Myth (With Bill Moyers) (1987)
  • Transformation of Myth through Time Volume 1–3 (1989)
  • The Hero with a Thousand Faces: The Cosmogonic Cycle (Read by Ralph Blum) (1990)
  • The Way of Art (1990–unlicensed)
  • The Lost Teachings of Joseph Campbell Volume 1–9 (With Michael Toms) (1993)
  • On the Wings of Art: Joseph Campbell; Joseph Campbell on the Art of James Joyce (1995)
  • The Wisdom of Joseph Campbell (With Michael Toms) (1997)
  • Audio Lecture Series:
    • Series I – lectures up to 1970
      • Volume 1: Mythology and the Individual
      • Volume 2: Inward Journey: East and West
      • Volume 3: The Eastern Way
      • Volume 4: Man and Myth
      • Volume 5: Myths and Masks of God
      • Volume 6: The Western Quest
    • Series II – lectures from 1970 to 1978
      • Volume 1: A Brief History of World Mythology
      • Volume 2: Mythological Perspectives
      • Volume 3: Christian Symbols and Ideas
      • Volume 4: Psychology and Asia Philosophies
      • Volume 5: Your Myth Today
      • Volume 6: Mythic Ideas and Modern Culture
    • Series III – lectures from 1983 to 1986
      • Volume 1: The Mythic Novels of James Joyce
  • Myth and Metaphor in Society (With Jamake Highwater) (abridged)(2002)

Video recordings[edit]

  • The Hero's Journey: A Biographical Portrait – This film, made shortly before his death in 1987, follows Campbell's personal quest – a pathless journey of questioning, discovery, and ultimately of delight and joy in a life to which he said, "Yes"
  • Sukhavati: A Mythic Journey – This hypnotic and mesmerizing film is a deeply personal, almost spiritual, portrait of Campbell
  • Mythos – This series comprises talks that Campbell himself believed summed up his views on "the one great story of mankind." It is essentially a repackaging of the lectures featured in Transformations of Myth Through Time.
  • Psyche & Symbol (12 part telecourse, Bay Area Open College, 1976)[c]
  • Transformations of Myth Through Time (1989)
  • Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth (1988)
  • Myth and Metaphor in Society (With Jamake Highwater) (1993)

TV appearances[edit]

Edited books[edit]

  • Gupta, Mahendranath. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942) (translation from Bengali by Swami Nikhilananda; Joseph Campbell and Margaret Woodrow Wilson, translation assistants – see preface; foreword by Aldous Huxley)
  • Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization. Heinrich Zimmer (1946)
  • The King and the Corpse: Tales of the Soul's Conquest of Evil. Heinrich Zimmer (1948)
  • Philosophies of India. Heinrich Zimmer (1951)
  • The Portable Arabian Nights (1951)
  • The Art of Indian Asia. Heinrich Zimmer (1955)
  • Man and Time: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks. Various authors (1954–1969)
  • Man and Transformation: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks. Various authors (1954–1969)
  • The Mysteries: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks. Various authors (1954–1969)
  • The Mystic Vision: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks. Various authors (1954–1969)
  • Spirit and Nature: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks. Various authors (1954–1969)
  • Spiritual Disciplines: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks. Various authors (1954–1969)
  • Myths, Dreams, Religion. Various authors (1970)
  • The Portable Jung. Carl Jung (1971)

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ The schema laid out in the following text was one that Campbell explored in many of his works, including The Masks of God series; it was the explicit structure of his unfinished masterwork, Historical Atlas of World Mythology.
  2. ^ This is the central thesis of the last volume of The Masks of God series, Creative Mythology.
  3. ^ Never released.

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ Young 2005, p. 420.
  2. ^ Bilodeau 1993; Gorman 2014, p. 76.
  3. ^ Larsen & Larsen 2002, p. 435.
  4. ^ "Vogler's Look at Mythic Structure Is Universally Valuable". August 15, 2011.
  5. ^ "Are You Monomythic? Joseph Campbell and the Hero's Journey".
  6. ^ Campbell's biography and Joseph Campbell: "Follow Your Bliss" from the Joseph Campbell Foundation website.
  7. ^ Jump up to:a b Stephen and Robin Larsen, Joseph Campbell: A Fire in the Mind. 2002, p. 541.
  8. ^ Jump up to:a b Dundes 2016, pp. 16–18, 25.
  9. ^ Jump up to:a b Toelken 1996, p. 413.
  10. ^ Jump up to:a b Scupin 2000, pp. 77.
  11. ^ "Joseph Campbell Foundation". May 2, 2016.
  12. ^ The Encyclopaedia of World Biography, second edition, vol. 3: Brice- Ch'i Pai-Shih, Gale Research, 1998, p. 253
  13. ^ The Hero's Journey- Joseph Campbell on his life and works, Centennial Edition, ed. Phil Cousineau, Joseph Campbell Foundation/ New World Library, 2003, p. xxvi
  14. ^ Garraty, John Arthur; Carnes, Mark Christopher; Societies, American Council of Learned (1999). American national biography. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195206357.
  15. ^ Joseph Campbell: A Fire in the Mind- The Authorized Biography, Stephen and Robin Larsen, Doubleday, 1991, p. 7
  16. ^ The Hero's Journey – Joseph Campbell on his life and works, Centennial Edition, ed. Phil Cousineau, Joseph Campbell Foundation/ New World Library, 2003, p. 3
  17. ^ Joseph Campbell: A Fire in the Mind- The Authorized Biography, Stephen and Robin Larsen, Doubleday, 1991, p. 23
  18. ^ "Joseph Campbell Bio". essortment.com. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  19. ^ Campbell 2003, pp. 20–25.
  20. ^ Campbell 2003, pp. 20, 29.
  21. ^ Joseph Campbell (1904–1987). Joseph Campbell Bio. Retrieved on January 20, 2020
  22. ^ Campbell 2003, pp. 29–35.
  23. ^ Campbell 1990, pp. 54–55.
  24. ^ Faulkner, Larry R. (May 2, 1999). "Excerpts of remarks made at a dinner honoring new Phi Beta Kappa members". Office of the President website. The University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved August 13, 2012. Citing a conversation between Campbell and Bill Moyers. "There was a wonderful old man up in Woodstock, New York, who had a piece of property he would rent out for twenty dollars a year or so to any young person he thought might have a future in the arts. There was no running water, only here and there a well and a pump. ... That is where I did most of my basic reading and work."
  25. ^ Larsen and Larsen, 2002, p. 160
  26. ^ Campbell 2003, pp. 52–53.
  27. ^ Souder, William (2020). Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck (1st ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 120. ISBN 978-0-393-29226-8. OCLC 1137813905.
  28. ^ Campbell 2003, p. 52; Larsen & Larsen 2002, pp. 156, 165.
  29. ^ Larsen and Larsen, 2002, chapters 8 and 9.
  30. ^ Straley, John (November 13, 2011). "Sitka's Cannery Row Connection and the Birth of Ecological Thinking". 2011 Sitka WhaleFest Symposium: stories of our changing seas. Sitka, Alaska: Sitka WhaleFest.
  31. ^ Tamm, Eric Enno (2005) Of Myths and Men in Monterey: "Ed Heads" See Doc Ricketts as a Cult Figure, seaaroundus.org; accessed August 27, 2016.
  32. ^ Robison, Bruce H. (2004). "Mavericks on Cannery Row". American Scientist. Vol. 92 no. 6. Sigma Xi. pp. 568–569. ISSN 0003-0996. JSTOR 27858490. Archived from the original on August 10, 2015. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  33. ^ Larsen and Larsen, 2002, p. 214; Pacifica Graduate Institute | Joseph Campbell & Marija Gimbutas Library | Joseph Campbell – Chronology Archived December 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  34. ^ Campbell 2004, p. 291.
  35. ^ See Joseph Campbell, Baksheesh and Brahman: Asian Journals – India and Sake and Satori: Asian Journals – Japan, New World Library, 2002, 2003.
  36. ^ Campbell, Joseph (2007). The Mythic Dimension: Selected Essays 1959–1987. New World Library. ISBN 978-1-60868-491-5.
  37. ^ "Joseph Campbell, Writer Known For His Scholarship on Mythology ", The New York Times
  38. ^ Joseph Campbell grave marker
  39. ^ Joseph Campbell Collection and at the OPUS Archive.
  40. ^ Campbell, J. (2003). The hero's journey (3rd ed.). Novato, CA: New World Library. p. 16
  41. ^ The Power of Myth, Doubleday and Co., 1988, p. 117
  42. ^ Campbell 1974, p. 392.
  43. ^ "Monomyth Website, ORIAS, UC Berkeley". December 26, 2012. Archived from the original on December 26, 2012. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
  44. ^ "Joseph Campbell Foundation – Works: Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, A". jcf.org. Archived from the original on July 11, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  45. ^ Jump up to:a b Campbell 1949, p. 30, n. 35.
  46. ^ Campbell J. [1999] Mythos: The shaping of our mythic tradition
  47. ^ Joseph Campbell: The Hero's Journey, 2000 documentary (at 0:04 point)]
  48. ^ Ellwood 1999, p. x.
  49. ^ Jump up to:a b Campbell J. (1969) Lectures II.1.1 The Function of Myth (given at The Esalen Institute in August 1969)
  50. ^ Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God, vol. 4: Creative Mythology (New York: Viking, 1965), p. 4
  51. ^ Campbell J. [1996] Mythos I: Psyche and Symbols (Joseph Campbell Foundation) Video on YouTube
  52. ^ Campbell J. (1988) Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth. Interview by Bill Moyers. Episode 3: The first storytellers
  53. ^ Video on YouTube
  54. ^ Campbell J. (1988) The Way of the Seeded Earth, Part 1: The Sacrifice. Interview by Bill Moyers. Episode 3: The first storytellers
  55. ^ Campbell J. (1964) The Masks of God, Vol. 3: Occidental Mythology
  56. ^ Campbell J. (1988) Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth. Interview by Bill Moyers. Episode 5: Love and the Goddess
  57. ^ "Joseph Campbell Foundation". Archived from the original on February 5, 2020. Retrieved November 5, 2001.
  58. ^ Campbell, J.: The Hero with a Thousand Faces Archived September 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  59. ^ Love, B. (1999). "George Lucas Interview". Well Rounded Entertainment. Archived from the original on November 20, 2008. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  60. ^ "Mythic Discovery: Revisiting the Meeting between George Lucas and Joseph Campbell". StarWars.com. October 22, 2015. Retrieved October 10, 2018.
  61. ^ The Mythology of Star Wars with George Lucas and Bill Moyers, Films for the Humanities and Sciences Archived January 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  62. ^ Henderson 1997.
  63. ^ Joseph Campbell and the Skywalker: Meetings with George Lucas, Pacifica Graduate Institute; accessed August 27, 2016.
  64. ^ James B. Grossman,. "The Hero with Two Faces" Archived May 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  65. ^ Brian Rafferty, "How Dan Harmon Drives Himself Crazy Writing", Wired magazine, September 2011.
  66. ^ Frey 2002.
  67. ^ Prado, Ryan (February 3, 2009). "Repairing Broken Molds". Submerge. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  68. ^ Daly, Steven (1998). "Tori Amos: Her Secret Garden". Rolling Stone. No. 789. pp. 38ff. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  69. ^ "A Practical Guide to the Hero's Journey". GDC Radio. CMP Media. 2007. Archived from the original on December 10, 2007. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  70. ^ Bridgman, Joan (2000). "Richard Adams at Eighty". Contemporary Review. Vol. 277 no. 1615. p. 110. ISSN 0010-7565. Retrieved September 2, 2018..
  71. ^ Adams 2005, p. 225.
  72. ^ "Dan Brown: By the Book". The New York Times. June 20, 2013. Archived from the original on January 3, 2022. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  73. ^ Campbell, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, edited by Betty Sue Flowers. Doubleday and Co, 1988, p. 120}}.
  74. ^ Campbell, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, Betty Sue Flowers ed. Doubleday & Co., 1988. p. 113.
  75. ^ Berger, Joseph (December 10, 1988). "A Teacher of Legend Becomes One Himself". The New York Times. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  76. ^ Hoxsey, Angela (December 5, 2014). "Follow Your Blisters". Napa Valley Register. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
  77. ^ Larsen, Stephen, and Larsen, Robin. A Fire in the Mind: The Life of Joseph Campbell. Doubleday, 1991, p. 510 (ellipses from source.)
  78. ^ Buchen 2008, pp. 363, 378.
  79. ^ Ellwood 1999, pp. 131–32, 148, 153.
  80. ^ Paglia 1991, pp. 115–16.
  81. ^ Paglia 1992, pp. 114, 241.
  82. ^ Paglia, Camille (November 10, 2009). "Pelosi's Victory for Women". Salon.com. Retrieved April 22, 2015.
  83. ^ Bernstein, Richard (November 6, 1989). "After Death, a Writer Is Accused of Anti-Semitism". The New York Times.
  84. ^ Ellwood 1999, pp. 131–132, 148, 153.
  85. ^ Masson 1991, p. 206.
  86. ^ Robey, Tim (December 14, 2015). "10 films that influenced Star Wars". The Telegraph. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  87. ^ McCutcheon 2001, p. 45.
  88. ^ Larsen and Larsen, op. cit., pp. 96–211, passim.
  89. ^ Bennett 2001, p. 206.
  90. ^ Campbell 1993, p. 249.
  91. ^ Joseph Campbell. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology Penguin, reprinted, ISBN 0140043063
  92. ^ Historical Atlas of World Mythology, Digital Edition Archived April 23, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, as viewed on Joseph Campbell Foundation website, July 9, 2014.
  93. ^ "Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor (Spirituality)". National Catholic Register. December 7, 2001.
  94. ^ Campbell, Joseph; Abadie, M. J. (1981). The Mythic Image. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691018393.
  95. ^ Campbell, Joseph; Epstein, Edmund L.; Foundation, Joseph Campbell (2003). Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: On the Art of James Joyce. New World Library. ISBN 978-1577314066.
  96. ^ Campbell, Joseph (2007). The Mythic Dimension: Selected Essays 1959–1987. New World Library. ISBN 978-1577315940.
  97. ^ Campbell, Joseph; Larsen, Robin; Larsen, Stephen; Couvering, Antony Van (2002). Baksheesh & Brahman: Asian Journals, India. New World Library. ISBN 978-1577312376.
  98. ^ Campbell, Joseph (2017). The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion. New World Library. ISBN 978-1577312093.
  99. ^ Campbell, Joseph; Kudler, David (2002). Sake & Satori: Asian Journals, Japan. New World Library. ISBN 978-1577312369.
  100. ^ Campbell, Joseph; Kudler, David (2003). Myths of Light: Eastern Metaphors of the Eternal. New World Library. ISBN 978-1577314035.
  101. ^ Campbell, Joseph; Kudler, David (2004). Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation. New World Library. ISBN 978-1577314714.
  102. ^ Campbell, Joseph (2015). Romance of the Grail: The Magic and Mystery of Arthurian Myth. New World Library. ISBN 978-1608683246.
  103. ^ Campbell, Joseph (2017). The Ecstasy of Being: Mythology and Dance. New World Library. ISBN 978-1608683666.
  104. ^ Campbell, Joseph (2019). Correspondence 1927–1987. New World Library. ISBN 978-1608683253.
  105. ^ "Bill Moyers Journal: Joseph Campbell – Myths to Live By (Part One)". billmoyers.com. Retrieved February 6, 2017.
  106. ^ "Bill Moyers Journal: Joseph Campbell – Myths to Live By (Part Two)". billmoyers.com. Retrieved February 6, 2017.

Works cited[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Books

Articles

External links[edit]

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How can I increase my spiritual discernment? | GotQuestions.org

How can I increase my spiritual discernment? | GotQuestions.org


QUESTION

How can I increase my spiritual discernment?

ANSWER

Discernment is defined as “the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure; an act of perceiving something; a power to see what is not evident to the average mind.” The definition also stresses accuracy, as in “the ability to see the truth.” Spiritual discernment is the ability to tell the difference between truth and error. It is basic to having wisdom.

Arguments and debates surround spiritual truth because it is obscure. Jesus, speaking to His disciples about the Pharisees, said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Matthew 13:11). Satan has “blinded the minds of unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 4:4), so God must shed light on the human mind to enable us to understand truth. It is impossible to attain wisdom without God. He gives discernment or takes it away (Job 12:19-21).

Some have mistakenly defined spiritual discernment as a God-given awareness of evil or good spiritual presences—the ability to tell if a demon is in the room. While some people may possess this capability, it is not the biblical meaning of discernment. Spiritual discernment ultimately has to do with wisdom and the ability to distinguish truth from error.

Wisdom is personified in Proverbs 1 and described as someone that we can “get to know” (vv. 20-33). The Bible says that Jesus Christ is “wisdom from God” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Therefore, wisdom, or spiritual discernment, is something that comes from knowing Jesus Christ. The world’s way of getting wisdom is different from God’s way. The learned of the world gain knowledge and apply reason to knowledge to solve problems, construct buildings and create philosophies. But God does not make the knowledge of Himself available by those means. First Corinthians 1:18-31 says the “wisdom of the wise” is frustrated by God who delivers wisdom to the “foolish” and the “weak” by way of a relationship with Jesus Christ. That way, “no human being can boast in His presence” (verse 29). We learn to be spiritually discerning by knowing Him.

It is not wrong to possess knowledge or have an education, and it is not wrong to use reason and logic to solve problems. However, spiritual discernment cannot be attained that way. It must be given by the revelation of Jesus Christ to the believer, and then developed by way of training in righteousness (Hebrews 5:14) and prayer (Philippians 1:9). Hebrews 5:11-14 shows how spiritual discernment is developed. The writer speaks to those who had become “dull of hearing,” meaning they had fallen out of practice discerning spiritually. The writer of Hebrews tells them that everyone who lives on “milk” (rather than the “solid food” desired by the mature) is unskilled in the word of righteousness; however, the mature Christian has been “trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” The keys, according to this passage, are becoming skilled in the Word of God (by which we define righteousness) and “constant practice” (through which we gain experience).

So, how does one increase spiritual discernment? First, recognizing that God is the only one who can increase wisdom, pray for it (James 1:5; Philippians 1:9). Then, knowing the wisdom to distinguish good from evil comes by training and practice, go to the Bible to learn the truth and, by meditation on the Word, reinforce the truth.

When a bank hires an employee, he is trained to recognize counterfeit bills. One would think that the best way to recognize a counterfeit would be to study various counterfeits. The problem is that new counterfeits are being created every day. The best way to recognize a counterfeit bill is to have an intimate knowledge of the real thing. Having studied authentic bills, bank cashiers are not fooled when a counterfeit comes along. A knowledge of the true helps them identify the false.

This is what Christians must do to develop spiritual discernment. We must know the authentic so well that, when the false appears, we can recognize it. By knowing and obeying the Word of God, we will be “trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” We will know God’s character and will. This is the heart of spiritual discernment – being able to distinguish the voice of the world from the voice of God, to have a sense that “this is right” or “this is wrong.” Spiritual discernment fends off temptation and allows us to “hate what is evil; cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9).



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3 Levels of Discernment (with signs of each)

3 Levels of Discernment (with signs of each)



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3 Levels of Discernment (with signs of each)
Home » 3 Levels of Discernment (with signs of each)


By Helen Calder


There are three basic levels of discernment, and understanding these will help you grow in your spiritual gift of discernment and empower you to lead a supernatural life.

You can soar in your gift of discernment!

Following are the three levels of discernment, along with some signs to help you identify each one:
3 Levels of Discernment
1. Natural Perception: the Ability to Judge Well

The dictionary defines discernment as ‘the ability to judge well’. So at the most basic level of discernment:
We can see the external of what is happening
We also have wisdom and perception about what’s taking place behind the scenes

The writer to the Hebrews says it is a mark of Christian maturity, to grow in discernment.
‘But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.’ (Heb 5:14, NIV)
2. Having a Discernment Ability

The second level of discernment is a heightened ability to discern. I frequently hear from people who are experiencing this second level of discernment, and who are having a difficult time knowing what to do about what they are sensing.

Signs of this level of discernment include:
Being tuned into people’s motives
Perceiving the spiritual realm
Being sensitive to atmospheres (both spiritual and natural)
The ability to discern the demonic realm and spiritual realities

The Bible tells us there is a spiritual gift of discernment of spirits, which is a gift of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12:10).

In 1 Corinthians 14:1, Paul says, ‘Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit…’ This brings us to the third level of discernment.
3. Seeing from God’s Viewpoint: As the Father Sees

Anyone can see what is happening in the natural realm. Some people may have the ability to see in the spiritual realm (and this is not always sourced in the Holy Spirit).

If you are a Christian, and your desire is to develop a spiritual gift of discernment, a third level of discernment is vital to you.
And that is, to see as your Father is seeing.

This third level of discernment is only available to those who are walking in relationship with God.

When your ability to discern is submitted to the Holy Spirit and based in the Father’s love, it will truly be a gift.
The fruit of your discernment will not be fear, suspicion, confusion or accusation.

Some signs of this level of discernment operating include:
Your discernment is life-giving
It brings freedom and transformation
It builds the church (1 Cor 12)
And, it draws people to Jesus
Jesus saw with the Father’s Eyes

We can be like Jesus, who looked beyond what could be seen with physical eyes, to what the Father was doing. He then spoke and acted accordingly.

‘Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”’ (John 5:19)

In Luke 8, Jesus took the disciples on a visit to a place called the Gerasenes, where a demoniac man was living among the tombs.
On the level of natural perception, people could see that the demoniac was crazy, out of his mind and dangerous (level 1)
Someone with discernment could see that his life was being controlled by demons (level 2)

However, Jesus went not only with discernment. He went with the eyes, heart and mind of the Father. He saw a man afflicted with demons—but He also saw beyond that, to a worshiper, a disciple and an evangelist.

And what He saw, Father’s intention, is what took place. He set that man free and sent him on his way with the good news about what God had done.

This is the third level of discernment
The Power of Seeing What Father Sees

When our eyes are focused on what our Father is doing, our gift of discernment can grow to a powerful level. We can then act and speak accordingly—as Jesus did.
Jesus was able to look at a tax collector sitting in his booth—a man seen by others as a cheat, a ‘shark’ and a tool of Rome—and see a disciple. He called Matthew into his destiny. (Matt 9:9)
Jesus was able to go into a workplace where there was weariness and frustration and see that His Father was bringing a miracle supply. He spoke a word of command and as the fishermen responded to that word, a school of fish was thrust into the nets. (Luke 5:1-11)
Jesus walked into a home where there was sickness and saw His Father bringing healing. He spoke the word and Peter’s mother in law rose up from her sick bed. (Matt 8:14-15)
Prayer

‘Father, I want to know you more. Help me to be like Jesus; to see as You see, in every situation. Today, share Your desires, Your intentions with me.

Holy Spirit, empower me to discern, and to speak words of life that bring healing, freedom and transformation. Help me to become so tuned to what is on Your heart, that when people encounter me, they encounter Jesus.’
Resources to Help You Grow to the Next Level in Your Discernment Gift
1. The Enliven Prophetic School (Video e-Course)

When you have a prophetic mindset, you can walk in the awareness of your Father’s intentions. So, teaming up your gift of discernment with the gift of prophecy is a powerful means of growing in your gift! The Enliven Prophetic School includes the following classes:
How to get closer to God and hear His voice
The basics of the discernment gift
Keys to growth in the seer gift, prophetic pictures and visions
Find out how to receive and process prophetic warnings from the Holy Spirit
Prophecy, foundations, prophetic guidance and more

You can find these sessions in the Enliven Prophetic School here.
2. Unlocking the Gift of Discernment eBook—3rd Edition

The gift of discernment of spirits is a powerful weapon in times of spiritual warfare, and can be of great assistance when ministering freedom to individuals. And yet many who have the gift of discernment have difficulty knowing what to do with what they are feeling or sensing.

‘Unlocking The Gift Of Discernment’ incorporates wisdom from Enliven Blog as well as additional valuable material on how to be protected as a discerner in times of spiritual warfare.


To view ‘Unlocking The Gift Of Discernment’ in our e-store, click here

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Related Posts:

8 Signs You May Have the Spiritual Gift of Discernment
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Discernment - Wikipedia

Discernment - Wikipedia

Discernment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Discernment is the ability to obtain sharp perceptions or to judge well (or the activity of so doing).[1] 
In the case of judgement, discernment can be psychological, moral or aesthetic in nature.[2] 
Discernment has also been defined in the contexts; 
  1. scientific (that is discerning what is true about the real world),[3] 
  2. normative (discerning value including what ought to be)[4] and 
  3. formal (deductive reasoning). 

The process of discernment within judgment, involves going past the mere perception of something and making nuanced judgments about its properties or qualities.[4] 

Discernment in the Christian religion is considered as a virtue, a discerning individual is considered to possess wisdom, and be of good judgement; especially so with regard to subject matter often overlooked by others.[5]


Contents
1Christianity
2Process of Discernment
3Christian Spiritual Discernment
4References
5Further reading
Christianity[edit]

In Christianity, the word may have several meanings. Discernment can describe the process of determining God's desire in a situation or for one's life or identifying the true nature of a thing, such as discerning whether a thing is good, evil, or may even transcend the limiting notion of duality.[4] In large part, it describes the interior search for an answer to the question of one's vocation, namely, determining whether or not God is calling one to the married life, single life, consecrated life, ordained ministry or any other calling.

Discernment of Spirits is a term used in both Roman Catholic and Charismatic (Pentacostal) Christian theology to indicate judging various spiritual agents for their moral influence.

Process of Discernment[edit]

The process of individual discernment has steps that can be taken in order to achieve a level of discernment. The following actions can be made when making decisions of discernment; taking time in making decisions, using both the head and heart, and assessing important values involved in the situation. Time has been considered necessary in the process of making a smart choice and decisions made in a hurry can be altered by lack of contemplation.[6] When time is available to assess the situation it improves the discernment process. When time allots the tentative decision can be revisited days later and external people can be consulted to make sure that the individual is satisfied with their choice.[7] Making decisions is involved with discernment and they require both the "head" and the "heart". Making decisions with the "head" means to first reflect on the situation and emphasize the rational aspect of the decision making process.[8] In order to make a decision with the 'heart'' the individual needs to make decisions based on feelings as well as rationality.[9] Values in the discernment process are weighing options that decide what is most important to the individual. Every individuals value system is different which affects each individual discernment process.[10] Combining values, using both the head and heart and taking sufficient time when making decision are the main steps for a successful discernment process.

Group discernment is a separate branch of discernment. In group discernment each individual must first undergo their own discernment process.[11] The individual must keep in mind what is best for the group as a whole as well as the individual when making a decision.[7] The same principles of values, using the head and heart, as well as giving the decision making process ample time all still apply in group discernment. Group discernment is different because it requires multiple people to have a unanimous decision in order to move forward. Group discernment requires discussion and persuasion between individuals to arrive at a decision.

Christian Spiritual Discernment[edit]

Christian spiritual discernment can be separated from other types of discernment because every decision is to be made in accordance with God's will.[12] The fundamental definition for Christian discernment is a decision making process in which an individual makes a discovery that can lead to future action.[13] In the process of Christian spiritual discernment God guides the individual to help them arrive at the best decision. The way to arrive at the best decision in Christian spiritual discernment is to seek out internal external signs of God's action and then apply them to the decision at hand. Christian Discernment also has an emphasis on Jesus, and making decisions that align with those of Jesus within the New Testament.[13] The focus on God and Jesus when making decisions is what separates Christian discernment from secular discernment. Ignatius of Loyola is often regarded as the master of the discernment of spirits.[14] Ignatian discernment comes from Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) when he created his own unique way of Catholic discernment. Ignatian discernment uses a series of Spiritual Exercises for discerning life choices and focuses on noticing God in all aspects of life.[15] The Spiritual Exercises are designed to help people who are facing a major life decision. There are seven steps of discernment to be followed that include identifying the issue, taking time to pray about the choice, making a wholehearted decision, discussing the choice with a mentor and then finally trusting the decision made.[16]

[17]
References[edit]

^ "DISCERNMENT | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary". dictionary.cambridge.org. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
^ Zangwill, Nick (2019), "Aesthetic Judgment", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2020-11-01
^ Zhu, Weidong; Li, Shaorong; Ku, Quan; Zhang, Chao (2020). "Evaluation Information Fusion of Scientific Research Project Based on Evidential Reasoning Approach Under Two-Dimensional Frames of Discernment". IEEE Access. 8: 8087–8100. doi:10.1109/access.2020.2963936. ISSN 2169-3536. S2CID 210696252.
^ Jump up to:a b c Diamond, Stephen A.; Larson, Paul; Amlen, Jennifer; Madden, Kathryn; Madden, Kathryn; DuBose, Todd; Crusalis, Bonnie Smith; Giaccardi, Giorgio; Leeming, David A. (2010), "Discernment", Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion, Boston, MA: Springer US, pp. 237–241, doi:10.1007/978-0-387-71802-6_171, ISBN 978-0-387-71801-9, retrieved 2020-11-01
^ Dominican Province of the Assumption. "The Journey of Discernment". Dominican Province of the Assumption. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
^ Wolff, Pierre (1993). Discernment: the Art of Choosing Well: Based on Ignition Spirituality. Liguori Publications. p. 4.
^ Jump up to:a b Barton, Ruth Hayley (2005-02-23). "Discerning God's Will Together: Discovering a Process of Leadership Discernment". Transforming Center. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
^ Horton, Dennis (2009). "Discerning Spiritual Discernment: Assessing Current Approaches for Understanding God's Will". Journal of Youth Ministry. 7: 9.
^ Wolff, Pierre (1993). Discernment: the Art of Choosing Well: Based on Ignition Spirituality. Liguori Publications. pp. 5–6.
^ Wolff, Pierre (1993). Discernment: the Art of Choosing Well: Based on Ignatian Spirituality. Liguori, Missouri: Liguori Publications. pp. 6–7.
^ Waaijman, Kees (2013). "DISCERNMENT AND BIBLICAL SPIRITUALITY: AN OVERVIEW AND EVALUATION OF RECENT RESEARCH". Acta Theologica. 32: 2–4.
^ Horton, Dennis (2009). "Discerning Spiritual Discernment: Assessing Current Approaches for Understanding God's Will". Journal of Youth Ministry. 7: 12.
^ Jump up to:a b Kunz, Sandra (2011). "Respecting the Boundaries of Knowledge: Teaching Christian Discernment with Humility and Dignity, a Response to Paul O. Ingram". Buddhist-Christian Studies: 177.
^ Kees, Waaijman (2013). "DISCERNMENT AND BIBLICAL SPIRITUALITY: AN OVERVIEW AND EVALUATION OF RECENT RESEARCH". Acta Theologica. 32: 2.
^ Au, Wilkie (September 2010). "The Ignatian Method: A Way of Proceeding". Presence. 16: 6.
^ Au, Wilkie (September 2010). "The Ignatian Method: A Way of Proceeding". Presence. 16: 7–8.
^ Franklin, Jentezen (2006). The amazing discernment of women : learning to understand your spiritual intuition and God's plan for. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc. ISBN 1-59951-003-0.

[1]
Further reading[edit]

Goll, James W (2017). The discerner : hearing, confirming, and acting on prophetic revelation. Franklin: Whitaker House. ISBN 978-1-62911902-1. [2] [3]


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^ Hunt, Dave; McMahon, T.A. The seduction of christianity: spiritual discernment in the last days.
^ Challies, Tim (2007). The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment. Illinois: Crossway Books.
^ (Kobus) Kok, Jacobus; van den Heuvel, Steven C. (2019). Leading in a VUCA World: Integrating Leadership, Discernment and Spirituality. Switzerland: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-98884-9. ISBN 978-3-319-98884-9.
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