Is THIS Better, or THIS?

Most of us have had our eyes checked.  We sit and look through a contraption that allows the optometrist to give us a choice of lenses.  “Is this better, or…this?”  At the beginning of the test the differences are obvious.  But as the print gets smaller, finer and finer distinctions are needed.

Karen Armstrong reminds us again and again in her works, most notably in The Case for God that we are given two very different lenses to make meaning of life’s print, especially as it gets smaller.  

Logos is the application of logic.  It’s the root of the word, in fact, as well as the root of theology, psychology, sociology, etc – the meaning and understanding of god, mind, and groups, respectively.  But she reminds us that there is another lens that allows us to see clearly at the parts of reality that are illogical: mythos.

Instead of laying out steps of understanding Scripture to teach us their meaning, Bernie Owens would open us up to allow the Scripture to teach us from within, to enable the words to sound their note and help us feel for resonances arising from within ourselves.  In one of his homilies, he played a hauntingly meditative piece of music, Pachelbel’s now overused Canon in D

, and stood at the lectern in silence for a round of the music.  At each repeat of the refrain, he would speak one of the I am names spoken by Jesus.  “I am the bread of life”, Bernie would say, and close his eyes, inviting us to do the same, and feel for recognition inside ourselves.   In a normal ten-minute homily, the priest might craft enough of a logical presentation to move us to think, feel, consider, based on facts.  Bernie was different.  So when I found out that Bernie was teaching a course on campus, I immediately enrolled. 

In the first class he told us that he would be inviting us to enter together into the Jesus myth.  I was shocked!   “Myth” was a word that meant to me something that was not really true, something that lost its validity when you applied logical analysis to it.  But Armstrong again and again reminds us that mythos provides a lens that enables us to interpret concepts and ideas, as well as logical analysis; she encourages us to look through its lens as well as logic, saying again and again, “Is this better, or…this?”

In the next few postings I’d like to invite you to try this.   Next: Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, Jesus Christ.