The Way of the Myth: Talking with Joseph Campbell

Bill Moyers was not the only interviewer to conduct a series of enlightening conversations with Joseph Campbell shortly before the latter's death- there was also Franz Boa. This thick little book was based on the Canadian documentary film series "This Business of the Gods." It is every bit as powerful as the Moyer's series- indeed it is uncannyly simular in content. The book is divided into eight chapters: 1) Gods, 2)Symbols, 3) Goddesses, 4) Initiations, 5) Animals, 6) Underground, 7) Conflict, and 8) Freedom. In these eight chapters Campbell and Boa manage to cover the essential nature of human life and spirituality. He does this through the medium of myth- and comparative religion. As Campbell puts it, myth is social dream and dream is the individual myth. There are a few concepts here that more convention religious minds will find shocking, such as the absurdity of looking for the "Holy Land" in some remote part of the world, or that the core mystery of Christianity is to follow the example of Christ- and see through the symbol in order to transcend it. I've read through this little volume three times now. It is so compact that you can keep in your pocket for convenient moments and almost forget that it is there. I personally loved the analogy of most "mature" individuals in this society being like people who have spent all of their adult life climbimg to the top of a ladder- only to find that it was against the wrong wall....by the way, 2004 is the 100th anniversary of Campbell's birth. He died on Oct. 30th (my birthday) in 1987.