Quote:
Originally posted by preciousjeni
All your points are well taken, but I wanted to clarify my stance on this one. I'm not saying that Genesis is myth. I'm saying that it is in mythic history meaning, from a literary point of view, the time frame cannot be determined and we have absolutely no literature from any person from the period. We have the result of oral tradition.
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I think this may be a useful distinction. I would call Genesis myth, but that doesn't mean I don't think it's true.
Again, we have a conflict of meaning of words: in common parlance "myth" means a fabricated story, something that itsn't true. In this sense, myth = fiction.
But in a more traditional sense, and in the sense used in a religious and cultural context, this hardly conveys the meaning of myth. In this religious/cultural context, a myth is a traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society. (Thanks dictionary.com for this good definition.) Whether a myth is factual or not is almost irrelevant -- what matters is what it means.
Understood this way, a myth can be very true without being factual. The truth is not found in the facts of the story but in the meaning of the story for those who hear it.
The meaning of Genesis? God created the world and all that is in it, and declared it good. Humanity rebelled against God, creating a rift that God nevertheless reached across to claim a people through whom the rift would be healed. Given this meaning, the actual facts of how God created the world, while interesting, are irrelevant to the truth that Genesis conveys.
Maybe we need to get people reading more Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. They understood the role of myth and its connection to Christiatinity quite well.
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