Joseph Campbell's Four Functions of Mythology

Joseph Campbell was a writer and teacher who detailed what all religions and mythologies have in common. His books such as The Hero With a Thousand Faces and Masks of God support with abundant evidence what their titles suggest: that hero stories and spiritual legends across all cultures contain the same elements, and point humans towards interactions with the same divine force, though it is seen differently by different cultures. He also coined the term "Follow your bliss." According to Campbell in Creative Mythology, mythology -- the stories representing the traditions and spiritual beliefs of any culture or religion -- serves not one but four functions. These he desribes in a chapter called "Towards New Mythologies." That context means that he is ready to address not just the four functions of mythology, but how well each one actually functions in today's world, and to what extent traditional understandings of them need to be revised. 1. The Mystical/Metaphysical Prospect. This is the religious/spiritual function: a myth is meant to make people experience the powerful feeling of the divine in their lives. As Campbell puts it, a "living mythology" will "waken and maintain in the individual an experience of awe, humility, and respect, in recognition of that ultimate mystery, transcending names and forms, 'from which,' as we read in the Upanishads, 'words turn back.'" (p. 609) Campbell seems to be all for this function of mythology. He writes of coming to a revelation of the unity between one's self and all things -- and nods at "the supreme rightness of the basic conviction in Vedanta: it is not possible that this unity of knowledge, feeling and choice which you call your own should have sprung into being from nothingness ... rather this knowledge, feeling and choice are essentially eternal and unchangeable and numerically one in all men, nay in all sensitive beings." He also clarifies that one is not part of a whole Oneness -- "for which part?" -- but "you--and other conscious beings as such--are all in all."(p. 610) That idea of everything being everything represents the essence of mysticism or metaphysical philosophy. Campbell concludes: "Who, then, is to talk to you or to me of the being or non-being of 'God,' unless by implication to point beyond his words and himself and all he knows or can tell?" (p. 611) 2. The Cosmological Prospect. "The second function of a mythology," Campbell writes, "is to render a cosmology, an image of the universe." (p. 611) This might include how things like time, space, and biology work and are organized -- for example, how the world and its creatures came to be (and how long that took, or how they changed over time), where heaven and hell and the Garden of Eden are, and what the universe is made of. Most modern people, Campbell writes, turn, "of course, not to archaic religious texts but to science" (p. 611) for this information. In fact, one reason that many mythological stories, and a participation in organized religions in general, are losing popularity is because the ancient cosmologies they are tied to are contradicted by modern scientific evidence.

Campbell cites a series of scientific milestones that he calls "revolutions" against established cosmologies. They include (1) Columbus proving the earth to be round (actually, "pear-shaped" is how he described it), (2) Copernicus and Gallileo proving the earth revolved around the sun and not vice-versa, (3) Newton and Kepler showing the mathematics that governed the motions of planets and other objects, (4) Kant and Laplace theorizing the evolution of the universe from clouds of rotating gas similar to those nebula visible elsewhere in space, (5) James Hutton using geological data to chart the gradual transformation of the earth, (6) Charles Darwin providing evidence that species were not fixed as God made them but constantly evolving, and (7) Einstein, Planck, Rutherford and Bohr redefining time and matter in terms of relativity, spacefilled atoms, and quantum energies. Campbell's final point is that science as cosmology as served us well where mythological cosmologies have failed us; he's all for science, and sees it compatable with the mystical function of myth: "The first function of mythology--to waken a sense of awe, humility and respect, before that ultimate mystery, from which ... 'words turn back'--has been capitally served by every one of those" scientists. Even as we have "Found Truth," he suggests, the universe is still full of wonder. The tragedy here -- and this is me editorializing, not Campbell -- is that due to scientifically disproven religious cosmologies, and the irrational way religious leaders have clung to these, many people feel obliged to choose between science and religion/mythology. So people who believe in science then throw away the myths entirely, losing the other functions of the myths that may still be valid -- the pathways to experiencing "the ultimate mystery from which words turn back"; wisdom-rich models for social behavior; and insightful symbols for psychological guidance. Meanwhile, those who support the mystical, social or psychological components of their chosen mythological belief system feel obliged to deny any science that contradicts their sacred cosmologies. So today we see fundamentalists denying the validity of the theory of evolution, for example, just as the Catholic Church murdered Galileo for honestly sharing what he saw in his telescope. 3. The Social Prospect. Campbell somewhat ominously defines this function of mythtelling as "the validation and maintenance of an established order." (p. 621) As I put it more positively above, it can also be seen as wisdom-rich models for social behavior. Parables embedded with morals attempt to teach us how we should behave -- what is model behavior and what is unacceptable. Wary of authorities casting unfair judgment on the innocent, as has happened in many a culture as reinforced by mythological belief systems, Campbell chooses here to quote John Dewey, who suggests that an individual's real experience should guide their behavior more than any handed-down social rules: "A philosophy of experience will accept at its full value the fact that social and moral existences are, like physical existences, in a state of continuous if obscure change. It will not try to cover up the fact of inevitable modification, and will make no attempt to set fixed limits to the extent of changes that are to occur." "In sum," Campbell writes, "the individual is now on his own." Campbell also cites Nietzsche to elaborate on the dillemma, for those who would ditch their mythological stories, of having no supernatural guide in life. Nietzsche said that

without God (or someone claiming to know God's mind) telling us what to do, people in the habit of being morally commanded will look to a new authority figure in their own conscience, or reason, or social instinct (the herd), or sense of history, or happiness. Instead of such following, Nietzsche suggests leading oneself as an individual -- a "Superman.". This he calls "Will in its highest sense ... in Absolute Mistrust of the Organizational Force of the Will-to-be-a-Whole." Leaving it at that, Campbell really seems to distrust the social function of mythology -except perhaps for any new myths encouraging extreme individualism. 4. The Psychological Sphere. This is the aspect of mythology where stories symbolize important points in an individual's life, with the purpose of "the centering and harmonization of the individual." (p. 623) Freud, with his Oedipal and Electra complexes, was one who explicity connected myths with life paths. Of course, most stories speaks to us as individuals exactly to the extent that we see ourselves in them. Campbell seems much more comfortable with this than the social aspect of myth, writing, "Since in the world of time every man lives but one life, it is in himself that he must search for the secret of the Garden." In other words, stories that help us to look for life answers and guidance within ourselves, and to understand our own narratives with the help of their symbolism, are tapping into a valid source: one's self, which happens to contain all of the universe anyway.

--Greg Doherty
http://drake.marin.k12.ca.us/staff/doherty/fourfunctionsmythology.html