All great systems, ethical or political, attain their ascendancy over the minds of men by virtue of their appeal to the imagination; and when they cease to touch the chords of wonder and mystery and hope, their power is lost, and men look elsewhere for some set of principles by which they may be guided. [...]
Myth equals a truth that cannot be explained by mere fact. A fact is utilitarian: It demands verification and replication. A myth can emphasize the beauty of God’s creation as well as the sacramental nature of life. Myth holds an estranged place in the modern world. But this is the modern world’s fault, not myth’s. [...]
In the Tanglewood Tales Nathaniel Hawthorne retells famous classical myths with imaginative charm that captures the universality and moral wisdom of the stories. Hawthorne’s lively, fresh retelling of six famous myths—“The Minotaur,” “The Pygmies,” “The Dragon’s Teeth,” “Circe’s Palace,” “The Pomegranate Seeds,” and “The Golden Fleece”—captures the essence of great stories that always possess, in Chesterton’s words, [...]
Joseph Michael Straczynski (b. 1954), better known to his fans, affectionately, as “Joe” or “JMS,” is one of the most important storytellers of our modern era, though far too few know who he is. Those who know him, know him well. Sadly though, there is no middle ground when it comes to awareness of one [...]
As an English snob once said, “How odd of God to choose the Jews.” What is remarkable about the history of the Jewish people is that it is unremarkable. It is extraordinary because it is ordinary. In other words, the Hebrews did not build ziggurats and hanging gardens. They did not carve a mysterious and [...]
Everyone keeps talking about how telling your children about Santa is a lie because Santa is not real. But who cares if Santa is real or not? The point is, Santa Claus is true. Here I am, writing about Santa again. In years past, I have written a lot about Santa. Last year I just [...]
As an acting student I once had to take part in a scene in which all of us wore masks that were drawn by random out of a box. We spent a few moments ‘alone with our mask’ studying it and trying to understand it. We then put on the masks and silently acted out [...]
In Monty Python’s comic diner skit every dish came with Spam, either a little or a lot. Is America the same with ideology? Does Ideological America touch everything and corrupt everything it touches, and can it turn back? Or, in the words of President Obama’s periodic, and oftentimes unpleasant, Chicago preacher, have “the chickens come [...]
J.R.R. Tolkien composed a whole “Elvish Book of Genesis,” describing the creation of the world by the One God (Illuvatar). In that mythological account—which he believed to be compatible with the creation story in Genesis—God first proposes the world as a musical theme. “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will.” [...]
All great systems, ethical or political, attain their ascendancy over the minds of men by virtue of their appeal to the imagination; and when they cease to touch the chords of wonder and mystery and hope, their power is lost, and men look elsewhere for some set of principles by which they may be guided. [...]
The cynicism of modern-day youth presents us with a great teachable moment. We must tell history as a great myth, for myths are often the best way of expressing truths. They are also the lifeblood of civilizations. “History is marble, and remains forever cold, even under the most artistic hand, unless life is breathed into [...]
The agency driving the threefold development of the Oresteia is human effort in partnership with divine purpose. The Athena of the third play provides the executive, personal agent who, in founding a polity, gives over divine to human providence. The great question provoked by the trilogy is the question of assigning ultimate causality, since from [...]
With stealth and no small amount of cowardice, the Greeks creep out of their strange gift, a large wooden horse, under the cover of night and safely within the locked city walls. Rather than face Aeneas and the Trojans as men in battle, the Greeks unlock the gates, letting their murderous comrades in, and proceed [...]
J.R.R. Tolkien Myth connects us to those of the past and to those of the future. Through myth, we grasp the continuity of all of God’s Creations, of all of the soldiers in the Army of Christ: those who came before Him to prepare the way, those who fought beside Him during his [...]