Religion and mythology

Religion and mythology differ, but have overlapping aspects. Both concern assumptions concerning the supernatural or sacred, and the values and institutions associated with such understandings.

Religion and mythology

Religion is commonly defined as belief concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the moral codes, practices, values, and institutions associated with such belief. It is a structure of beliefs that involves the existence or nonexistence of at least one of:

a human soul or spirit,
a deity or higher being, or
self after the death of one's body.

It generally involves how people worship and can include any system of beliefs (eg., like those that do not involve the existence of one or more deities like Buddhism).

Mythology refers to a collection of stories about a people, usually concerning their origin, history, deities, ancestors, and heroes behind the belief structure and faith. The stories discussed express the viewpoints and beliefs of the country, time period, culture, and/or religion which gave birth to them. It can also be a body of myths concerning an event, person, or institution. One can speak of a Jewish mythology, a Christian mythology, or an Islamic mythology, in which one describes the mythic elements within these faiths without speaking to the veracity of the faith's tenets or claims about its history. Mythology is used to refer to stories that, whether or not believers accept them as strictly factual, are believed to reveal fundamental truths and insights about human nature, often through the use of archetypes. From this perspective, Story (Myth), figures prominently in most religions and belief systems, and specific mythologies are tied to at least one religion.

The word mythology itself is sometimes controversial. Because it is usually applied to the narratives of religions that are no longer widely practiced, many people assume that all myths are false. Myth and mythology can denote beliefs without implying falsehood.

Similarities

"Mythology" can be used to refer to stories that, whether or not they are strictly thought factual, are received for their deeper truths and insights about human nature, often through the use of archetypes (eg., viewpoints and beliefs of the country, time period, culture, and/or religion which gave birth to them). Therefore, some mythologists would define any element of a religious narrative as belonging to the realm of religious mythos, including also any formal religious doctrinal tradition, including the Trinity, Allah, the Son of God. From the perspective of comparative mythology and comparative religion, these elements represent the symbolic values within these faiths. The similarities between cultures and time periods can be useful, but it is usually not easy to combine beliefs and histories from different groups. Simplification of cultures and time periods by eliminating detailed data remain vulnerably delicate or flimsy in this area of research.

Some similarities between cultures and time periods include:

Baptism was a principal ritual.
The sacrament of a ritual meal of bread and wine (which symbolize the deity's body and blood) have been held by both.
Some celebrate the birthday of their god incarnate.
Some celebrate the resurrection of their god (such as the Resurrection of Jesus and the Egyptian worship of Osiris).

Contrasts

Though there are similarities that exist between current religions and defunct religions, there are contrasts. Mythologies typically are explanations of the universe, natural phenomena, or other themes of human existence, often ascribing agency to one or more deities or other supernatural forces. Some religions have very few of this kind of story of cosmic explanation. Where there are similarities, the particular meaning of the rituals and celebration may not have synonymous meanings. Similarity of literary style between different religious texts can be attributed to common cultural milieu.

Range of views

Academic views

The academic meaning of the word mythology refers to the nature of an account as being preceived as sacred or "deep" by its audience (as opposed to texts viewed pragmatically or sceptically by their audience). Characterization of a body of texts as "mythology" does thus not negate or deny any of the beliefs involved, it is unrelated to concepts of objective "truth", while it presupposes spiritual or emotional attachement of a community to the texts in question. Mythology is used in this sense to understand the body of stories, addressing issues of core belief, that explains or symbolizes a religion.

Sociologists and historians of religion are not primarily interested in these stories for their historical value. They analyze religions in terms of the role which their stories and histories play, within the religious system. Histories and imaginative stories alike are treated as a body of myths, when they are regarded by a people as expressing profound truths. Describing the essential and traditional stories accepted as mysteries and historical narratives considered true is consequently just a tool for theological studies and study of the systems of common experience in general. Without necessarily speaking to the veracity of the faith's tenets or claims about its history, these mythological elements are studied for their mythic value.

Religious views

Some religious groups as well as individuals, especially within revealed religions that are justified in terms of an authenticated scripture, take offense when what they consider to be historical aspects of their faith, or the Word of God, are characterized by outsiders as an expression of myth. Those who hold such views differentiate religious myths, fables and symbolic stories, from those narratives of Scripture which Scripture itself, or their tradition, describe as history or revelation. Some use the description fundamentalism for this view; and they suppose fallaciously that this view rejects discernment of various literary types, hyperbole, allegory, or other non-literal kinds of meaning in Scripture (although a few individuals holding the view require that every incidental element be accepted as literally true).

But there are often reasons internal to a given religion that account for this objection to such terminology. For example, the etymology of the word myth as it is used in the Greek New Testament means a fable. Thus, if essential mysteries and teachings are described as myth, to most English speakers, but especially to more religious individuals, the word implies that it is a fable and false invention. This description would be taken as a direct attack on religious belief, quite contrary to the meaning ostensibly intended by the academic use of the term. (However, for an example of typically academic writing where 'myth' clearly denotes 'falsehood', being used unequivocally in opposition to 'historical', see the article Historicity of Jesus.)

There are also historical reasons for people of faith to be sensitive to the term. During the dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution, alongside the adoption and enforcement of a policy of religious toleration, for a time speaking of the Bible as anything except a myth came to be viewed by authorities as treasonable. Public expressions of Christian belief were also discouraged. Similar policies have also been forced upon people at various other stages and places in history. For example, Enver Hoxha's Albania denied its citizens freedom of religion, although the constitution of 1976 ostensibly guaranteed this right. Some communist regimes, such as Maoist China and Stalinist Russia, have instituted policies to stifle religious expression, though it can be argued that Communism was acting as a religion stifling competing faiths.

Some apologists for religious belief sometimes argue that when their scriptures, or the codes or values associated with their beliefs, are described as a "mythology", it introduces an analysis of religion that ignores, and sometimes denies, the transcendent and historical aspects supposed by adherents. Some religious individuals believe that these academics mean to dogmatically insist that their religion is merely the creation of human religious imagination and a development of culture, when the religious see this as the reverse of the case: that their scriptures and codes are a correction of otherwise errant religious imaginations, of which their culture is the product.

Using the terms of myth and mythology to describe a developed doctrine may also be taken by some religious individuals, such as evangelists, priests, rabbis, or shamans, as an attack on the religion in general (eg., that some do not truly desire to describe their beliefs, but only desecrate devout concepts). Some religious groups may hold the same belief in this use of terminology. Even when such groups or individuals recognize elements of mythology especially in their literature and folk religion, this is sharply distinguished from the tradition and Scripture of their formal religious doctrines. Their philosophy would not include elements of their respective religions, such as God, the Trinity, or Allah, as in any sense "myths" or "mythical".

In contrast, many religious people view every religion as containing a body of myths that express deeper truths, that are ineffable on the surface level. Modern day rabbis and priests within the more liberal Jewish and Christian movements, as well as most Neopagans, have no problem viewing their religious texts as containing myth. They see their sacred texts as indeed containing religious truths, divinely inspired but delivered in the language of mankind.

Miscellaneous

The Dewey decimal system covers religion and mythology (or religious mythology) together in the 200 range. The books under 201 are for "Religious mythology & social theology". "Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system". Online Computer Library Center, 2005. (PDF)

External articles and references

Citations

General

Brantley, Garry K., "Pagan Mythology and the Bible". Apologetics Press, 1993. (Originally published in Reason & Revelation, July 1993, 13^*:49-53.)
Robinson, B. A.,"Parallels between Christianity and ancient Pagan religions". Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, 2004.
Crystal, Ellie,"Mythology". Crystalinks, 2005.
Baskin-Jones, Michele, "Death, Dying and the Afterlife in Religion and Mythology". dying.about.com.
"Religion and mythology : Selected resources". University of Wisconsin Library, 2004.
"Mythology". The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2005.

Encyclopedia and text repositories

Occultopedia: The Occult and Unexplained Encyclopedia.
Internet Sacred Text Archive