JOSEPH CAMPBELL'S MYTH "AND/VERSUS" RELIGION

Author(s): William G. Doty

Source: Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 79, No. 3/4 (Fall/Winter 1996), pp. 421-
445
Published by: Penn State University Press
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JOSEPH CAMPBELL'S MYTH AND/VERSUS
RELIGION

WilliamG. Doty

Myths are cluesto thespiritual of thehumanlife.

potentialities
г
J.Campbell(1988b,5)
The logicofmythclaimsthatthereis always, no matterhowitis
disguised,qualified,or suppressed, a "hiddenconnection"or "in-
nerlaw"linkingchaos and cosmos,natureand culture.
Religionexistsas a kindof sumof all otherculturalsystems to
saythat [the] ambiguities, the feltchaos of has
life, meaning be-
It is partofthelargerfictional
causeitis interpretable. story - the
-
myth or thepermanent cosmologicalstructures of reality.
N.J.Girardot(1983,3, 7)2
Л^нат Norman Girardot calls the mythiclogic undergirding
the hidden connection of thingsis forJoseph Campbell the
essentialrole of myth:it disclosessymbolicinner/mysticalmean-
ings not apparent to the casual glance, and it protects such
meaningsfromthe historicistor literalistpathologywhichclaims
thatparticularreligiousinterpretationsrepresentthe single,his-
torical,factualtruth.Religiousmythis notjust entertainingliter-
ature but an all-informingperspectiveon life that often gets
scripturalizedin sacred canons. It shapes the worldviewand
hence the orientationto the respectivevalues of nature and cul-
ture,and it guides our socio-emotionalinteractionswithothers
by providingmodels and templatesof behaviors.
Joseph Campbell's "take" on mythwas so persuasive that,as
Greg Salyersuggests,"Campbell, especiallysince his death, has
himselfbecome a myth"(1992, 67). He situated himselfat the
intersectionbetween our common humanityand the rich,poly-
valentresourcesof the world's greatexpanse of mythicinforma-

William G. Doty is Professorof Humanities at the Universityof Alabama in

Tuscaloosa.

Soundings79.34 (Fall/Winter1996). ISSN 0038-1861.

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422 SOUNDINGS WilliamG. Doty

tìon. "For a significantnumber of Americans,"saysWalt Gulick,

"JosephCampbell has become a modern religioushero" (1990,
31). In two recent volumes (Noel 1990a and Golden 1992),
twenty-nine contemporaryscholars found the implications of
Campbell's work significantenough for the studyof religions
and mythologiesto praise as well as criticizehim,startingalready
withinthreeyearsof his death in 1987.
This essaywill explore some of the religiousaspects of Camp-
bell's myth-work, and his way of talkingabout mythsas potent
cultural forces. Campbell often conflatesmetaphysicsand psy-
chologywhen he chartshuman responses to the transcendent,
and his symbolico-experiential mysticism withclassi-
has affinities
cal intellectualgnosticism,as when he emphasizes "the experi-
ence of eternityright here and now, in all things whether
thoughtof as good or as evil" (1988b, 67) .3
I willlook at Campbell in his role of religious"maverick,"and
attemptto correctmisleadingviewsof what Campbell refersto
withthe Hindu concept of ananda, or bliss.And I will conclude
with Campbell's evolutionarypropositionthat afterwe support
whatDaniel Noel calls "hisblendingofWesternpsychologicalin-
dividualismwith esotericAsian mysticism"(1990b, 52), we can
anticipatea planetaryculturein a new synthesisof humane val-
ues, unfortunately nowherespelled out by Campbell.
An oeuvre spanning so many books over so many years can
onlybe verypartiallydocumentedhere, and I have not soughtto
portraythe degree to whichCampbell mightbe said to have re-
mained a loyal son of the Catholic Church, or to have "devel-
oped" his thought in his later works. Campbell's later
publicationsrecyclemotifs,themes,ideas, analyses,and interpre-
tationsthatrecurredfromthe timesof his earliestpublications:
even the graphicimages in the illustratedworksto whichhis last
yearswere devoted are repeated fromvolume to volume. There
is a continued spiralingback around to some of the original
benchmarkphilosopherscited in TheHerowitha ThousandFaces
(1968b) - Spengler,Schopenhauer,and Schlegel,and earlyspe-
cialistsin the anthropologyof religionsuch as Leo Frobeniusand
AdolfBastian,or the modernistwriterswho according to Camp-
bell "said it all," namelyJamesJoyceand Thomas Mann.
Although he had an intellectualallergyto formal dogmatic
theology,Campbell certainlytreatedreligioustopics throughout

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 Mythand/VersusReligion 423
JosephCampbell's

his career. Ignored by professionalacademics in Religious Stud-

ies who presumablywould have been his peers in studyingreli-
gious myths,he ignored them equally, almost never citing
contemporaryprofessionaljournals or specialists.4I often find
students puzzled about an approach in Campbell's work that
Religious Studies instructors discarded long ago, and his reports
of the findingsof the naturaland social sciences were frequently
out of date. In a criticalreviewof An OpenLife,Daniel Noel con-
cludes that"thereis ... littleevidence . . . thatCampbell cared
about any 'advances' other than his own shiftingpredilections."
In Noel's view,thisbook underscoreshow, "notwithstanding his
own evolvinginterpretiveskills,somethingother than cutting-
edge scholarshipwas central"(1990b, 55).
While manycontemporaryacademics pursue mattersof mean-
ing such as those raised by Campbell's writings,theyoftenfind
Campbell's answersincomplete,inconsistent,or insufficiently de-
as
veloped, they do the of
thought many otherwriterswhose pri-
mary contributionswere made several decades ago. Certainly
there are fewcollege textsin religion or mythologywhich have
not been throughseveralrevisionssince the period (1959-68) in
which the fourvolumesof TheMasksofGodwere published. But
Campbell was neverone to revisehis works,and he repeated the
same arguments tirelessly. Campbell's erudition was not
favorabletoward the manifoldarticles of formal theology.His
was not the tinyfinishbrush of portraiturebut the broad sweep
of landscape.
Most other specialistsin mythhave kept up with the ethno-
graphic details developed in the disciplinesof the anthropology
and historyof religions,as well as the methodological shiftsin
the literarystudyof mythin classicsand literaturestudies,so that
reading Campbell now feels almost like reading Frazer's Golden
Bough.There are importantcomprehensionsand insights,but
the reader wondersjust how Campbell would deal withthe great
mass of contemporaryaporia and postmodernistmaterialsthat
are seldom engaged in his works,beyond a passing referenceto
computersand Star Wars.(Somewhat ironically,one activityof
theJoseph Campbell Foundation is digitalizingall of Campbell's
writings.)
As a popularizer,Campbell was concerned thatour public reli-
gious symbolsare dyingor lost,and thatmuch of the population

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424 SOUNDINGS William
G.Doty

merelydelves withinratherthan emulates now-moribundreli-

gious models (1972, 90). Our scientific, and generallyour public
language is no longer filledwith poetic metaphorsand symbols,
but withdiscretebitsof information, such as the "sound bite" of
a politician.To speak in such a contextof a yoga or yoking,i. e.,
a religioustying-together of values and interpretationsof experi-
ence, is to speak against the grain of our newspapersor labora-
tory documents. We have Campbell (and producers Stuart
Brown and Bill Moyers) to thank for the attractivediscussions
that public televisiondisseminatedacross the country,wherein
many such deep-culturalissues were discussed effectively once
again.
Campbell speaks about the significanceof the idea of deity,
about the range ofwaysoffacingdeath,about how societiestreat
human maturationand growth,about how representatives of the
common lot - heroinesand heroes - act initiallyagainst,then
on behalfof the commonwealth.In short,thereare deeplymoral
concernsbeing studiedand voiced in Campbell's lectures,inter-
views,and writings,and even when I sometimestire of hearing
the same answersrepeated,I appreciate thatat least here some-
one is raisingimportantreligiousissues. Gulick regards Camp-
bell as a contemporaryreligious hero precisely because "he
consistentlyattends to issues of existential meaning without
bringingthe nature of this meaning to thematicfocus" (1990,
34). Gulick notes as well that Campbell's approach to myth"is
largelydevoid of eitherethicalor religiouselements.Yet because
[Campbell] involves his readers in concerns commonly dealt
withby the world'sreligions,it is usefulto speak of [his] impact
as religiousin character"(1990, 37), an observationtotallyop-
posed to the opinion of tworeadersof thisessaywho feltit com-
pletelyinappropriateto speak of Campbell as a religiousfigure.
SurelyCampbell maybe called a modernistin MiltonScarbor-
ough's sense of substitutingone set of things (moral values,
preachments)foranother (the images/figures of a myth)(1994,
22), but Gulick would have him opening a new branch of reli-
gious/Christianexistentialism. I suspectthatScarboroughcould
be pressed to include Campbell withinhis own groupingof post-
structuralist, postphenomenologicalmythographers who speak,
in the fashionof Polanyiand Merleau-Ponty, of tacitknowingon
the one hand, and of the "presumptively universal"quality of

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 Mythand/VersusReligion 425
JosephCampbell's

myth:"It is an existentialconditionarisingin actual experience"

(1994, 94). That "actual experience" of die phenomenologists'
life-world is partof the "body"of the myth:Scarboroughreclaims
the affective natureof mythology preciselyin itsexistentialcondi-
tionedness; mythis not emptytype or archetype,but is always
realized.
The issues Campbell engaged may have not seemed like reli-
gious issues to manypersonsaccustomed onlyto the hegemonic
Westernreligiosity thatis reportedon the simplisticnewsreports
of television,or thatis heard fromelectronicpulpits.But again
and again when I lead discussionof these materials,I note the
stronglyreligiousconcernsof the personsaskingquestions.Con-
servativesand liberalsalike have troublewithsome of the waysin
which Campbell forces them to challenge their own tradition,
and even the mostliberalwonderifthe East can reallydeepen or
thickenWesternreligionas Campbell promises.
Nor are his claims timid.Campbell makes KundaliniYoga the
most importantreligiousfocus of severalof his works,including
TheMythicImage(1974, chap. 4), TheInnerReachesofOuterSpace
(1986, 63-105), and Transformations ofMythsThroughTime(1990c,
chaps. 7-9) . Kundalini Yoga is also crucial withrespect to God-
dess religionin ThePowerofMyth(1988b), and it is used allegori-
callyand comparativelyin Transformations ofMythsThroughTime
"to link into our Western philosophies" (1990c 134). In The
Mythic Image,Campbell notes that"itis becoming increasinglyap-
parent as we advance in our knowledgeof Asia thatin the yogic
lore of India and Tibet, China, and Japan,we mayhave a master
keyto the inwarddimensionsof ли symbolicforms"(1974, 278).
Harold Coward observesthat Campbell used Kundalini Yoga as
"a templateto organize his understandingof other Eastern and
Westernmyths"(1990, 57) .5
Campbell did not spend his eighty-three years exploring my-
thologies and the cultures that produced them merelyfor the
purpose of entertainment. He believed that mythscould give
conscious access into the underlyingand transcendingcosmic
powers: "Mythis the secret opening through which the inex-
haustibleenergiesof the cosmos pour into human culturalmani-
festation"(1968b, 3). Mythic/mystic symbolsare for Campbell
the bearers of thisgreatenergie,spiritualsource, and he consid-

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426 SOUNDINGS William
G.Doty

ers them not dismissivelyas mere images,but as importantenti-

ties thatrelease energiesotherwisenot accessible:
The imagesofmythare reflections
ofthespiritual
potentialities
of everyone of us. Throughcontemplating
thesewe evoketheir
powersin our ownlives.(1988b,217-18)
Nowthefirst and mostimportant effectofa livingmythological
symbolis to wakenand giveguidanceto theenergiesofLife.It is
an energy-releasing and energy-directing sign,whichnot only
"turnsyouon,". . . butturnsyouon in a certaindirection,making
youfunction a certainway- whichwillbe one conduciveto your
participationin the life and purposesof a functioning social
group.However,whenthesymbols providedbythe socialgroup
no longerwork,and thesymbols thatdo workare no longerofthe
group, theindividual cracksaway,becomesdissociated and disori-
ented,and we are confronted withwhatcan onlybe nameda pa-
thologyof thesymbol.(1972,88)
Anotherpathologythatevoked Campbell's Irish-American ire
repeatedly was the claim by any religiousgroup to be The Cho-
sen People of a particulargod (1990b, 167). Assertingthat "A
god is a personificationof an energy,a natural energy,which
comes either through the external natural world or from the
world of inner nature" (1989, 25), Campbell treatsclaims to be
the only people for whom the energyrepresentedby deityis
available as representingessentiallyclaims that block that god
fromaccess by others.
Of course the underlyingidea thatgods or God are a sort of
naturalenergyratherthan eventsof history-intrusive revelationis
itselfenough to cause traditionalreligious folks to stumble a
good bit. But Campbell the post-Freudiangoes even furtherin
arguingthat,in fact,"deitiesare personifications, not facts,they
are metaphors.They're not referencesto anythingthatyou can
put yourfingeron, or youreye on. They are metaphorstranspar-
ent to transcendence"(1989, 28; cf. 1988a, 87; 1989, 51). And
the Hindu-inspiredleap Campbell usuallytook at thispoint goes
even further:"We're in troublebecause we don't recognize that
thegod's energiesare our own energies'(1989, 29, my emphasis).
Campbell's assertionsare typicalof Western religious mystics,
who usuallyhave been made to feel unwelcomein the familyof
Westernreligionsbecause of theirclaim to intimacywiththe di-
vine, but theyare commonplace in the East.6

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 Mythand/VersusReligion 427
JosephCampbell's

Two primaryproblems typifythese religions, toward which

Campbell experiences the son's mixed love and rejection: (1)
takingthe mythicsymbolsand the deities literallyor historically
ratherthan metaphorically, and (2) the dogmaticclaim thatthe-
ological tenets have priorityover personal religiousexperience.
With respect to his own Roman Catholic rearing, Campbell
noted that all the old Christianstoriesare meaningless "unless
those can be read as metaphoricalof what ought to happen to
me, thatI oughtto die and resurrect,die to myego and resurrect
to my divinity"(1990b, 139). He paraphrases "the Oriental
gurus,"approvingly,as asking "What does it matterif someone
rose fromthe dead 2,000 yearsago? Are you risingfromthe dead
today?"(1988a, 31).
Likewisehell, reinterpretedmetaphorically, mustsurelybe the
abode of people who could neverrelinquishtheirpersonal egos
in order to allow a transpersonalpower to become the center of
theirlives (1988a, 67), and the God image itself"is a metaphor
for a spiritualexperience. But you don't have to get it through
thatparticularmetaphor"(1988a, 87) - the sentimentis thatof
the earlierdemythologization movementin Christianity, wherein
eventuallythe particularhistoricalJesus is no more important
than anyotherepiphanysuch as Buddha or Gongfutzu). Indeed,
religious mythologyworks primarilyat the level of the meta-
phoric imagination and the mysticalexperience of transcen-
dence (1990b, 159, 162), and it is no good pretendingto have
the one withoutthe other.
That experiencingof the divineenergieswithinone's own bi-
ographyis preciselywhatreligionsreferto in termsof mysticism,
and mysticalbranches of religionsare almost universallyconsid-
ered suspect by theological authorities charged with correct
teaching,because mysticalexperiencefallsbeyond the controlof
the religiousinstitution.Campbell suggeststhatreligionis mostly
"a misinterpretation of mythology"when it fails to understand
the spiritual,metaphoricnature of mythicsymbolismand hence
substitutesforit a specifichistoricalor local form(1988a, 78-79);
it maysubstitutethe tenoror finalreferenceof the symbolforits
vehicle, the image for the reality(1968b, 236, 270). The tradi-
tional theological termfor such a situationis "idolatry"(1990c,
132), and Campbell neverhesitatesto applyitwhen the transcen-
dence of the symbolis reduced or set aside: "Anygod whois not

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428 SOUNDINGS WilliamG. Doty

transparentto transcendenceis an idol, and its worshipis idolatry"

7
(1986, 44)
A similarproblemfacesour own daywhenwe are so farfroma
sense of the poetic thatwe can equate metaphoronlywithfalse-
hood, lies,and unreality,a situationCampbell refersto as mistak-
ing "tribal literalism"and "sentimentalizedsignificance"for
transcendence.Just such improper interpretationof religious
mythleads, he suggests,directlyto the complicatedreligio-polit-
ical situationof modern Beirut,wherein"the contendingzealots
of three differentinflectionseven of the same idea of a single
paternal 'God' are unloading bombs on each other" (1986, 58).
Campbell also refersto his confrontationwitha talkshowhost
who stubbornlyequated lie and metaphor,even thoughhe could
not give even a simple definitionof the latter (1990b, 134-36).
Hence it is notjust theologythatgets tarredwiththe "idolatry"
brush (1988b, 141; 1990b, 191), but our contemporaryinability
to appreciatethe culturalheritagethatprecedes and now accom-
panies positivisticscientismand the predominant mercantile
worldview.Scarboroughfindsthatworldviewfounded alreadyin
Platonic dualism,or at least in the Cartesian dualism that gave
birthto modernism.Salyernotes (1990, 54, 56) how reductionis-
ticRobertSegal's approach to Campbell is, preciselywhen it con-
cernsCampbell's own concept of the "dualityof the world"- so
that Segal's "introduction"becomes "an attack on Campbell's
oeuvreinstead of an interpretation of it" (54) . Sexson showsjust
the opposite, how Campbell emphasizes the mysterious, provid-
ing readerswitha rich toleranceforambiguityand a technique
formediatingand balancing,livingwithinthe perceiveddualities
(1990, 140).
To read the storiesaboutJesus' ascension (his bodilyelevation
to the skies) metaphoricallyis to allow themto live anew (1988b,
56) ; but to literalizethemis essentiallyto denythemanyspiritual
reference,and hence to destroythem (1959, 27, 42). There may
be a middle way,and I thinkit surprisingthatthe mythophilein
Campbell didn't emphasize it more: one can emphasize the es-
sentiallyparadoxical manner of so much of what gives life its
meaning. I mean the double focusthatcan accept the thorough-
going dualityof being/non-being,good/evil, male/female,in-
deed "the basic paradox of myth:the paradox of the dual focus"
(1968b, 288). That paradox is whatis learned by the heroine or

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 Mythand/VersusReligion 429
JosephCampbell's

hero whose exploitshave led to life-changing confrontationwith

the depth/ground/fundament, and who returnsto the everyday
world withinnocence lost, but withthe inner spiritualeye that
sees beyond the limitationsof the presenttimepurified.It is also
what is disclosed by the mythictrickster,who causes one to
double-sighteven the mostelevatednotionsof a god: "The trick-
ster representsthe deitycoming throughas the destroyer,the
disrupterof programs"(1989, 89); but while the tricksteris the
dissolver,he is also a creator/shaperfigurewho knows how to
make the most of the primeval mud/chaos (see Doty 1992,
Hynes and Doty 1993).
The paradoxically-clarified vision arises fromrecognizingthe
essentialequalityof inside and outside, human and deity,good
and evil - theyform"a single, self-mirrored mystery, which is
identical with the mysteryof the manifestworld" (1968b, 40).
Self and World, the immediateexperientialand the atemporal
transcendent,are seen through mysticallyas two sides of the
same coin, as two phases of appearing and existing.We situate
ourselvesnow in the mesocosmic position between macrocosm
and microcosm, the mythological(most "normal" religiosities
substituteat thispoint "the religious"or "the ritual"),in-between
locus whereinone can sanctifythe everyday,give its banalities a
transcendentalsignificance,yetat the same timerealize thatthe
archetypal transcendent is only available through the local
manifestation.
Campbell returnedto the theme of the universalin tension
withthe local throughouthis career: the danger alwaysis thatthe
local (the "mypeople," the specificlocalizationsof tradition,the
folkinflectionsthathave contributedsuch a wide range of shap-
ings of various religions,what the Greeks would referto as the
epichoricas opposed to the national, the oikotypical vs. the arche-
typical) overwhelms the universal.It substituteslimited belief in
one particularizedhistoricaltraditionfortrans-historical and uni-
versal truth.Here Campbell becomes moralistand preacher for
his own understandingof the true mythology:
Inevitably,in thepopularmind,where. . . metaphors oftranscen-
dence becomeknownonlyas represented in the ritualsand leg-
ends of the local, mythologically inspiredcontrolsystem,the
wholesense of the symbology remainslocked to local practical
aimsand ethnicalideals,in thefunction chieflyofcontrolling, so-
cializing,and harmonizing local termsthe primitive
in strictly

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430 SOUNDINGS William
G.Doty

bioenergiesof thehumananimal,to thepopularends of health,

progeny,and prosperity as the properaims of a human life.
Whereas,in fundamental contrast,thewayofthemystic andofproper
art(and wemight alsoadd,religion) is of recognizing throughthe
metaphors an epiphanybeyondwords.(1986,21; italicsdifferent
in original)8
Such epiphany or manifestationof deity beyond words is
sought in the vision quest, as "the essenceof mythology"(1988a,
23), and it is the ultimateexperience thatleads to the realization
thatall the world's mythologies, seen mystically, tell partsof the
same story.Such experienceleads also to the understandingthat
the blissfulsense of being properlysituatedwhere one ought to
be comes fromone's own sat, chit,and ananda. Those Sanskrit
termsare religiousshorthandforthe Hindu recognitionthatone
has firstthe proper sense of one's being and place in the uni-
verse;second the consciousnessappropriateto the variousinher-
ited-classesand stagesof life (varna and ashrama);and thirdthe
"rapture"of atunementto the transcosmic,whose "bliss"is more
and yetless than perfectpersonal fulfillment (1988b, 120).
Since the reiterated"followyour bliss" admonition has been
one of the points at which the filmedinterviewsand associated
publicationshave provokedthe mostquestions,9we ought to see
what Campbell means by this term,which is contrastedwithits
opposite, namelywork,which "beginswhen you don't like what
you're doing" (1988a, 107). Blissis the highestvalue not of tradi-
tional, orthodox,religiousteaching but of the left-hand,unor-
thodox path; it is the Hindu termfor the attainmentof insight
into one's proper place in the universe,one's appropriaterela-
tionshipto the divineenergies(the enlightenedperson mayhave
the suffix-anandaadded to her/hispersonal name). Not surpris-
ingly,ananda is whatCampbell considersthe correctoutcome of
the "mythologically inspiredlife' (1990b, 64).
In opposition to the pop religiousofferof easy grace, it is not
cheap, easy,or attainedas a gift,but somethinggained byexperi-
ence and discipline,bya lifetimedevotedto findingone's appro-
priate position between the paradoxical polarities mentioned
earlier:
therealpowerofthelefthand path[is] followingyourblissinstead
of instructions.
You'refollowing thelead ofyouremotionand of
yourvitality; but the head has to be thereall the timebecause
you're on a narrow ridge[referring to a BuddhiststoryCampbell

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 Joseph Myth
Campbell's and/Versus
Religion431
hasjust told]and in dangeroffallingoff.Thatis to say,lettingtoo
muchof thetorrent ofenergycome throughwillblowit. (1988a,
31)
The bliss-fulllife is full of spontaneity,one of Campbell's
hallmarksof human authenticity.10
The lefthandpath of bliss is also the path of the individualin
contrastto the righthandconditioningand constrainingof "the
context of the ideology ... of one's local village compound"
(1990c, 26). It is the path thatrecognizesfullythe paradoxicality
of lifeand can absorb the horrorof the Fall, thatis, the message
that "Life's a killer"- a "terriblemessage and yet it's the bliss
message. Bliss absorbs pain. But it's certainlynot happiness"
(1989, 105), nor is it merelyunthinkingpleasure: "Ifyourblissis
just your fun and your excitement,you're on the wrong track"
(1990b, 214).
Bliss is educed from the deepest place within oneself that
harborsone's sense of personal mission,comparable to whatled
Jesusto the crossand crucifixion(1990b, 154-55). In response to
a question fromthe audience at one of his lectures,Campbell
firstresponded that "an individual has to find what electrifies
and enlivenshis own heart,and wakes him" (1990b, 134), and
then went on, just at the point where he mighthave said "and
have a good time!" to point to "the world of the artsand litera-
ture,whatwe call the liberal arts [as] the worldin which to find
all this" (ibid.). Learning to be ready to experience it can be
compared to a college education or to trainingfor a career
(1990b, 100). It should be obvious that isolating Campbell's
"blissmessage"misreadsit simplistically about as much as to state
thatJesus "is all about love."

Followinghis lefthandpath withrespectto traditionalWestern

religions,Campbell crafteda personal career thatwas uniquely
his own,following,as Phil Cousineau, editorof TheHero'sJourney,
puts it, "his Tao of Scholarship beyond the hallowed halls of
traditionalacademia and into a spiritualand psychologicalview
of mythology, which embracesthe transcendentRealityreferred
to by saintsand shamans thatcan be directlyexperienced'(Camp-
bell, 1990b, xii). Campbell,in acceptingthe Medal of Honor for
Literaturefromthe National ArtsClub, referredto having felt
verysuccessful"in spite of my nonacademic career, you might
say" (1990b, 177). Such a maverickposition can be sustained

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432 SOUNDINGS WilliamG. Doty

only by someone deeply grounded psychospiritually, who needs

littleexternalapprobation.
Campbell's typicalexpositionof the twofoldpaths of mytholo-
gies and world religionsportraysthe one typeas being repre-
sented by the law, history,and sociology, and the other by
feeling,nature,and spontaneity(cf. 1990b, 222; 1990a). The lat-
ter is the lefthandpath of the iconoclast or revisionist,and in
Campbell's case thatmeant especiallytakingpositionsthatoften
clashed withinstitutionalWesternreligiosity.
Campbell's positionrevivesan issue faced in earlyChristianity
when it responded to verypopular Gnostic interpretations(at
one point earlyon, over halfof all Christianswere Marcionites).
Subsequent Church historianswrotethe storyas if the Gnostics
were "outsideagitators"detractingfromthe "truefaith,"but it is
clear now thatthe GnosticChristianities were simplyepichoric(lo-
calized, regional) forms that did
finally not have enough political
clout to survivewhen dominated by the patriarchal,obsessively-
institutionalWestern (particularlyAntiochean and Roman)
forms.11
We are speaking,then,about experiential,mysticalreligiosity
as opposed to institutional, dogmatic,canonical religion.Camp-
bell continuallyworriedthatawkwardtensionbetweenthe numi-
nous epiphany (the immediateexperiencingof the divine) and
the canonical institution,althoughit is strikingthathe neveren-
gaged the extensive academic discussion of those differences
duringhis own career,in the severaldisciplinesof anthropology,
sociology,and psychologyof religion.In fact,the social function
of mythis repeatedlyignored, as evidenced by the fact that
Campbell neverexplored the contextsof mythicstoriesin terms
of theiroriginsand subsequentsitesof transmission. Various ana-
lystsspeak of Campbell's American Romantic individualism,in
whichthe social functioningis ignoredno less thanin traditional
religiousgnosticisms.12
Campbell could be vituperativewhen it came to the institu-
tionalformsofWesternreligionthathe sawbeginningalreadyin
the Israelitescriptures.13Some have claimed that Campbell was
anti-Semitic,relyingalmost entirelyon posthumous and ad
hominemattacks,and citingpersonal incidentsthatwe can only
stackup againstall the pro-Campbellvoiceswhose evidence runs
in totallyopposite directions(such as the thirteendevoted years

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 Myth
CampbeWs
Joseph Religion433
and/Versus

editingthe posthumaof HeinrichZimmer,whose familyhad fled

the Holocaust) . Any casual reader will find throughoutCamp-
bell's writingscriticismsof Christian,Islamic,and Hindu funda-
mentalismsthatare everybit as powerfulas those againstancient
Israel. "All religionshave a point of absurdityin them," he la-
ments (1990c, 109).
What especiallybothered him about organized religionswas
that theythreatenedthe developmentof the individualismthat
"Republican" Campbell considered to be unique to modern
Westernhistory.Again and again he attacksconstraintsupon in-
dividual belief - an emphasis that seems to me to have been
based in the 1950-60sreactionagainst"mass human" values that
had become evidentin education so well as in businessand poli-
tics during that Cold War period. It was likewisea sort of neo-
Stoic escapism or displacement:during the social unrest of the
late Hellenisticperiod in Greece and Rome, Stoicismoffereda
retreatto the internalSelf that could "live hidden" no matter
what the outside politicalworld is doing, a position echoed fa-
mouslyin the twentiethcenturyby Dag Hammarskjöld (see es-
pec. 1964).
Withthe end of the dominance of the Church and manyclassi-
cal habitsof the Westernhumanitiesin the modern world,when
the individual ratherthan the societasbecame culturallydomi-
nant, when it became more and more acceptable to define the
individualwithina "natural"opposition to the social, we face a
breakdown of traditionalWestern mythology.14 Ours is not a
timeof "no mythology," but of competingmythologies,a timeof
a sortof ultimate-choicecable-TVof religiousoptions,in whichit
becomes harder and harder for individualsto make intelligent
selectionsand choices such as were made on theirbehalfearlier,
and then conveyedthroughinitiationand othercommunal rites.
FortunatelyCampbell,whose personal crotchetsincluded con-
servativeattitudesabout gender roles and other sensitiveissues,
did not call for reinstatementof hegemonic controlby a single
mythology. Traditionalsocietiesin which thereis a single domi-
nant mythology tend to be intolerant,repressive,and imperialis-
tic, and Campbell would hardly advocate reinstating their
stricturesagainst the freedomsof the Republican individual. I
suspect thathe would be more interestedin what ethiciststoday
referto as "middle axioms,"benchmarksthatare not thoughtof

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434 SOUNDINGS Wiüiam
G.Doty

as absolute or final,but as havingprovisionalvaliditywithinpar-

ticular interpretivecommunitiessuch as religious denomina-
tions; or he might have agreed with contemporarycritical
theoristswho stressnot correct/incorrect readingsbut interpre-
tationsappropriateto particularhermeneuticalcommunities.
The precise nature of those communitiesseemed not to con-
cern Campbell, who had little positive to say about collectivi-
ties.15Perhaps overreactingto the early-twentieth-century and
subsequent Stalinistperiods in whichAmerican entrepreneurial
individualismseemed threatened,Campbell emphasizes repeat-
edlythat"theplace to findis withinyourself (1988b, 161).16But
simultaneously,Campbell saw his role as prophetic, as vitally
challenging the dominant communityvalues, although not as
calling for an end to their statusas traditions.The archetypal
powersource available to the individualcomes not as an isolated
bolt out of the blue, but it is conditioned by the traditionsin
which one is reared. Ultimatelybeing a hero means movingbe-
yond one's own ego towardthe human collectivity: "youmustlive
not in termsof your own ego system,your own desires,but in
termsof whatyou mightcall the sense of mankind- the Christ
- in you" (1988b, 210).
A certainChristianbias remains,even in thisreligiousmaver-
ick who so oftenchallenged particularistic interpretationsof the
Christianpreachings.And a bias towardthe Republican ideals so
intimatelytied up withAmericanidentityamong the well-to-do.
Gettingus into the next phase of transglobalidentity,namely
planetaryconsciousness,willbe extremelydifficult, yetCampbell
did littlemore than mention its growingnecessityand impor-
tance: "The old gods are dead or dyingand people everywhere
are searching,asking:What is the new mythologyto be, the my-
thologyof thisunifiedearthas of one harmoniousbeing?" (1986,
17); "I do thinkwe're at the beginningof a global age ... All
horizonsare broken" (1990b, 209); "thewallsare down"and "we
need a global mythology"(1989, 124, 46).
Alreadyin 1949, in TheHero witha ThousandFaces,Campbell
spoke of the need for a planetarycommunityto replace the
bounded consciousnessof the nationalismsto whichwe have be-
come so accustomed (1968, 388), but he providesfewhintsother
than the need to coordinatethe scientificcosmologyof our cul-
ture with its religious worldview.One wishes he had been as

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 Mythand/VersusReligion 435
JosephCampbell's

skilled at developing sufficientcoordinations of such perspec-

tivesas he was at indicatinghow greatlymodern religionfailsto
accommodate its teachingsto scientificfindings.Preciselyas we
now appreciate the complexitiesof a fullymulticulturalsociety,
we would like to know more about what Campbell might have
said about the mutual and respectfulcoexistence of all the vari-
ous religioustraditionsthathe studied.Did he see an interplane-
tary mythospherebeyond the realms of science/speculative
fictionand conservativeChristianity? Did he even read science
fiction?
Nonetheless, a fullyplanetaryconsciousness will presumably
build upon somethinglike Campbell's notion that there is one
transcendingmythologicalbase variouslyinflected:"The univer-
sally distinguishingcharacteristicof mythologicalthought and
communicationis an implicitconnotation throughall its meta-
phorical imageryof a sense of identityof some kind, transcen-
dent of appearances, which unites behind the scenes the
opposed actors on the worldstage" (1986, HO).17 Or such con-
sciousnesswill disagree: let others deal withdifferences,Camp-
bell chose to emphasize similarities.As Phil Cousineau suggests,
Campbell's was the searchfora unifiedfieldtheoryequivalentto
Einstein'sin the physicalsciences (1990b, xi-xii).
That sort of theoryrequires a universal essentializingto be
contrastedsharplywiththe emphasisin traditionalWesternreli-
gions upon theirunique historicalexperience and religiousreve-
lations,18and again we are at a point where traditionalWestern
religionswould have grave difficultiesin followingCampbell's
design. Each of the patriarchal,history-stressing religions now
dominant claims that its own revelationis unique and its own
relationshipto a god particular- quite in contrastto a sugges-
tion thatwe mighteach learn to worshipthe god-nessof each
other,a concept familiarin the East,but alreadyforthe Greeksa
position of divine-humanfusionthatwas hybris, problematic;the
oracular "Knowyourself!"meant somethinglike "Recognize the
proper limitsof human claims to autonomy!"
Nor can the claim that Campbell makes about the relatively
minor value of social historicity
fail to rufflethe feathersof the
pious: alreadyin TheHerowitha ThousandFaces,he had argued
that if a particularhero-figurelacked elements appropriate to
the innate scheme of the hero-pattern, followerswould fabricate

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436 SOUNDINGS William
G.Doty

such elements: "If the deeds of an actual historicalfigurepro-

claim him to have been a hero, the builders of his legend will
inventfor him appropriate adventuresin depth" (1968, 321).
Here again the lefthandperspectiveleads beyond the problem
posed by recognizingthe imaginai characterof most of the sa-
cred-heroaccounts; and perhaps the new planetaryconscious-
ness willbringreplacementsforthe standardmacho hero model
as well.
Campbell notes that the traditionalhero path that he charts
withsuch verveand insightis a model forthe adolescent (1988b,
124). Jungianinterpreters such as JosephHenderson (1964) stip-
ulate thatthe hero motifarisesin personal psychologicalmateri-
als preciselywhen the individualego needs to be strengthened.
One wonders then if the traditionalhero model celebrated in
America is still appropriate for adults. How can it be that so
much of our mass entertainment(withitsCowboyor Vice Squad
or John Rambo) is fixatedat a teenage level of development?
Campbell proposes thatthe hero "evolvesas the cultureevolves"
(1988b, 135), but unfortunately he did not show us what he
meant by that remark,nor did he develop adequately a mono-
mythof the heroine such as Maureen Murdock has proposed,
focused not upon conquest but upon human interrelationships
(1990).
One sort of 21st-century evolutionwould be a revisioningof
the hero towardmore psychologicaland mysticaldirections.Per-
haps somethinglike the various metaphysicallevels {padmas or
chakras)studiedin KundaliniYoga mighthelp us risebeyond the
needs and concerns of the adolescent-hero.Campbell observes
thatonly the firstthreeof the seven chákrashave to do withthe
developmentof hero strengths, and thatin order to reach more
adult stages of development,the higher chakrasrequire in fact
the sacrificeof the hero-formitself(1974, 490). The goal of every
yoga/religion is to go into the ultimate zones of the Mother
Light, the mysticalexperience (1974, 362), not merelyas part of
the bliss of the individual,but as participationin the ultimate
(collective?).A new heroicismwould strengthenthe planetary,
not the individualego; it would involvenot merelyfightingthe
demons of constrictinginstitutionalism, but those of the egoic
denial of others that often characterizespreciselysome of the

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 Mythand/VersusReligion 437
JosephCampbell's

popular-religion/psychology groupswho toutthe universalismof

Joseph Campbell.
Where we need most help todayis in findingheroines whose
self-consciously-held ideals unfold fromthe supportivecommu-
nity,not from solar heroes who strikeout againstthe community
as theirfirstand primaryproof of manhood.19Campbell under-
standsthe dangersoffallinginto an undisciplined,consciousness
destroyingpsychosis.20He defines as neurotic the person who
does not manage the "second birth" of becoming adult and
therebyof becoming an integral member of the social unit
withinwhich identityshould be based.
UltimatelyCampbell idealizes religion as a mode of personal
psychology- "in the finalanalysis,religionis psychologicaland
in the deepest sense spontaneous" (1959, 263) - and much of
whatCampbell addresseswe hear now in the contextof whathas
come to be called humanistic psychologyor even New Age
thought.Sometimes the self-help,positive-thinking orientation
of such a movementseems irresponsibly up-beatand Pollyanna-
like in the face of somethinglike the Holocaust, or the realiaof
Beirut,or the Persian Gulfinvasions.It seldom addressesdirectly
contemporarypsychologicaltheoryor research,or specificsocial,
ethical,and politicalproblems.
But Campbell's "psychology"is closer to whatwe usuallyterm
metaphysicsor theosophyratherthan psychology- "the figura-
tions of mythare metaphorical... in twosenses simultaneously,
as bearing (1) psychological,
but at the same time (2) metaphysical,
connotations" (1986, 56) - and he can slip directlyfrom the
language of psychologyinto thatof metaphysics:"thereis a basic
psychologicallaw that any livinggod unrecognized becomes a
demon" (1988c, 2.1: 46). Of course, fromthe point of view of
contemporaryacademic psychology,thisis a curious sort of psy-
chology,and in factthe sortof social science mentioned earlier
in this essay turnstoday even less than Campbell does to such
figuresas Jungand Freud, concerned as both those figureswere
withthe classical "care of souls."21
Campbell's "psychology" mayhave closer analogies to develop-
mentalpsychologyor the recentemphasisin education and eth-
ics upon the progressivestages of moral development,as when
Campbell notes the usefulnessof mythologicalimages and mod-
els to provide projectionsof psychicpossibilities:

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438 SOUNDINGS Wtüiam
G.Doty

The myth is themirror fromwhichtheego can see itselfreflected.

It'sa mirror witha scheduleon it,a patterned and theego
mirror,
sees itselfin thatreflexand knowswhereit is on theScoreboard
.... The mythletsyou knowwhereyou are. It knowswhatthe
patterns oflifehavebeen through centuriesand whatpositionyou
noware enteringor holding.(1989,94)
In thissense, mythis conservativelike the ashramicsystemof In-
dia or the etiquettemanuals of the Americanupper-class:it con-
veys the approved manifest of ways of being in the world
religiously.
Likewise for the culture: even a socio-historicalrecollection
can be mythologically or psychologically interpreted- we begin
to circle back to where we began; we may now say thattheyare
"metaphorically" interpretedhere. I've neverforgottenthe meta-
phorical insight that Campbell develops in OcddentalMythology
(1964) when he treats the IsraeliteExodus as a mytho-cultural
cycle of descent into the underworldand resurrectionrather
than as a possibly-historical record.
Campbell did not endear himself to religious orthodoxies
when he equated the significanceof the Christand the Buddha,
or when,in respondingto RobertCockrell'squestion about what
he considered"thebestwindowto an experienceof the transcen-
dent," he indicated "eitheran Upanashadic text or one or an-
other of the Buddhistsutras"(Campbell, 1990b 166) P Or when
he said thatJamesJoyceratherthan Holy Scriptureprovidesthe
sacred textfor the modern period, or when he repeatedlyem-
phasized the Dionysiacliberationof the nature religionsagainst
whichall threeWesternmonotheismshave inveighed- in these
instanceshe made evidenthis own religiousiconoclasm.
Furthermore, Campbell was doubtlesssuspecteven in religious
circles that were appreciative of the informationconveyed
throughhis comparativist approach when he set out in one of his
firstvolumes to writea "naturalhistoryof the gods" (1959, 5),
and when he continued throughouthis life to reflectupon the
biological factorsthatmightinfluencereligions (fortunately he
never stumbledonto sociobiology!) Bettertermsthan "biologi-
cal" today would be psychobiological, psychosomatic,
psychophysiological, or bioenergetic(1986, 20), since Campbell
was primarilyconcernedwiththe culturalresultsof particularbi-
ological patterns.23 He wondered about the possibilityof physio-
logical-genetic bases of the religious or mythicalarchetypes,

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 Mythand/VersusReligion 439
JosephCampbell's

anticipatinga recentsuggestionbyNormanAustinthatthe infor-

mation in archetypesis comparable to whatwe now know about
DNA (Austin1990) .24
Curiouslythe biologicalwas forCampbell as much as anyother
category"the cultural,"since the life-cycle determinantsderiving
frombiological developmentthat he treatedin Primitive Mythol-
ogy (1959) transform into other biocultural factorsin other writ-
ings. They are the three fundamental factorsthat lead to the
developmentof a mythology:(1) the "recognitionof mortality
and the requirementto transcendit"; (2) the relativeinsignifi-
cance of the individualin contrastto the long-lastingendurance
of the social group; and (3) the spectacle of the universe,and of
the human relationshipto the naturalworld (1972, 22-23).
In the portionof the HistoricalAtlasofWorldMythology entitled
The Sacrifice(1988c, 2.1), such factorshave become the four
paideumatic or pedagogical models underlyingthe historicalpro-
gressionfromthe sacrificialworldof the hunterthroughthe rec-
ognitionof the mathematicalregularitiesof the heavenlybodies
and finally,the turn,in India, to the recognitionthatthe world-
founding and world-sustainingpower of the world-external
Source is "the same willor powerthatcan be experienced within
as the verylife,finally,of oneself' (84) .
At the end of a career in whichCampbell's disciplinedfollow-
ing of his bliss (he notes repeatedlythat his religion was his
scholarship,his yoga or meditation studyingand underlining
books) gave him a suretyof approach, a self-confidence in what
he was about, thathas leftus an inheritanceusefulfor years to
come. That the oeuvre has been so appealing for so many de-
cades reflectsthe non- or anti-institutional fundamentsof many
of Americanreligiousand intellectualreaders.Campbell repeat-
edly engaged issues that theologians were engaging; and he
graphed the religionsof the worldin the wayshistoryof religion
specialistswere onlylearningto do.25
Remarkably,he neverengaged in the sortof backbitingamong
the denominationsand faithsthatstillcharacterizesthose books
on "non-Westernreligions"thattreateverything fromthe magis-
terialor triumphialist of
perspectives the dominantWesternreli-
gious development ("almost Christianin its sophistication,the
Hindu idea of ..."). That ordinarylaypersonscould wrestlewith
grippingissues about the meaning of the universe,the nature of

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440 SOUNDINGS WilliamG. Doty

goddesses and gods, how to face death, where to turnto find a

moral community, and how to pursue religiousinterestsin a con-
text free of denominational cant or privilege - we all have
Campbell to thankforhis impetusin thisregard.
His prophetic critique,namely that the progressivedevelop-
ment of Westernreligionshas led merelyto a sort of legalistic
hardening of the spiritualarteries,and must be revivifiedby a
massiveinfusionof Easternreligiousthought,seems ultimatelyto
reflectnonethelessa sortof devolutionarybias thatfindsall reli-
gions movingfroma primaltheophany(manifestationof the di-
vine) to dogmaticlegalisms.Campbell was good at critique,but
not blessed as a system-builder, and the questions that recall us
repeatedly to the study any non-modern,non-Westernreli-
of
gious mythology remain to be answeredby others.
Are therewaysto retainthe experientialpowerof the encoun-
terwiththe originarynuminositywithinthe institutionsthatare
necessaryfortheirsurvivalas human social entities?Can the new
planetaryconsciousness and its resultingcommon mythology
provide the sort of successfulresolutionto the question of the
spiritualexperience and the institutionallaw with which each
religionhas to wrestle?And: Willsuch a perspectivekeep us from
wipingfromthe face of our planet the meager bounds of civiliza-
tion thatwe have been able to cultivate?
Ifwe manage it,itwilldoubtlessbe witha much largersense of
who and what "belongs" to civilization.Such a perspectivewill
honor beings and powerssuch as we have onlybegun to recog-
nize withinWesternevolutionaryand dualisticperspectives:"the
whole contextof world history,in fact,is of destiniesunfolding
throughtimeas a vastnet of reciprocalinfluences. . . whichnot
only are of people upon people, but involve also the natural
world withits creaturesand accidents of all kinds" (Campbell,
1986, 110).
The "new mythology"to come? Well, for all of its echoes of
religioussystemsthatwe now recognize,it too will be different
fromany of those popular systems:
It is - and willforever be,as longas ourhumanraceexists- the
old,everlasting, perennialmythology, in its"subjective
sense,"po-
etically renewed in terms neither of a remembered pastnor of a
projectedfuture, butof now:addressed,thatis to say,not to the
flatteryof"peoples,"butto thewakingofindividuals in theknowl-
edge themselves, simply egos fighting place on the
of not as for

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 Mythand/Versus Religion 441
JosephCampbell's

surfaceof thisbeautifulplanet, but equally as centersof Mind at

Large - each in his own wayat one withall, and withno horizons.
(1972, 266 - the concluding paragraph)
JosephCampbellrespectedabsolutelythe independenceof
themythic voices,evento thepointofdisembodiedrecitalsthat
nowstrikeus as insufficient
or strained.
Butprecisely
as thearch-
criticand the proponentof "individualism," Campbellwould
wantus to lookintoand behindand throughhisownrepresenta-
tionsofmyths as metaphors open to transcendence.
Was,one is
tempted to ask,JosephCampbell an "elemental
idea"?

NOTES
1. Cf. 11 and 217-18.
2. Scarborough (1994) payslittleattentionto Campbell,but does provideuse-
ful reflectionupon the more philosophical dimensions of myth,such as
those "cosmologicalstructures"named by Girardot.
3. Karen King observesthatCampbell's use of gnosticmaterialsis haphazard
and never grounded in "sustainedanalysisof particularGnostic mythsat
all, even those easilyavailable in the fiftiesand sixties"(1992, 79).
4. I discuss that issue in Doty (1990). One often has the impression that
Campbell's approach to religionand mythology was one thatlet him favor
eitherentitywhenitwas mostusefulforhis argumentcf.the opening of the
second chapterin TheInnerReachesofOuterSpace."From the point of view
of any orthodoxy,mythmightbe defined simplyas 'other people's reli-
gion,' to which an equivalent definitionof religion would be 'misunder-
stood mythology,' the misunderstanding consistingin the interpretationof
mythicmetaphorsas referencesto hard fact" (1986, 55).
WalterGulick (1990) treatsCampbell intriguingly as "a modern religious
hero" in his carefulexpansion of Campbell's four functionsof mythology
into a modernistexistentialistparadigm. Spiveyobserves that one reason
that Campbell was ignored by much of the academic world was that he
"uses wordsrejected by the reigningmodern authoritieson literatureand
the other arts- 'bliss,' 'eternalvalues,' the 'inner life,'the 'spirit'"(1992,
79).
I have not found it useful to apply the term Perennial Philosophy to
Campbell's work because it is a term that has many historicalreferents,
although it is used by Segal (1990) and Sexson (1990). Campbell himself
uses it in its Eastern multiformin Transformations of MythThroughTime
(Campbell 1990c, chap. 5); as a more neutral omnibus termin the study
guide forhis PBS serieswithBill Moyers(Lord, et al., 1990, 68-70,74; and
in TheHero'sJourney: The WorldofJosephCampbell(Campbell 1990b, xv and
127).
5. Coward criticizesCampbell's confusionsof the variousyogicschools (1990,
57, 64). I expressed myreservationsabout the findingof a single keystone
in a reviewessayon the book (Doty 1976).

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442 SOUNDINGS William
G.Doty

6. On the importanceforCampbell of India and Easternreligionsgenerally,

see Coward,who notes, "To a greatextentCampbell's 'mono' or 'master'
mythis the mythof India" (1990, 67).
7. Severalcriticsin Noel pinpointthe de-emphasisupon the sociologicalfunc-
tion of myth(1990a, 69, 107, 142), but perhaps most tellingis Sexson's
observationthatCampbell almostneverpursued the sociopolitical/gender
ramifications: "Campbell seldom examines the ideo-storyof any of the nar-
rativesthathe tellsso well" (1990, 142).
8. The closenessof artand religionforCampbell is evidentin his lastwriting,
"Artas a Revelation"(in 1988c, 1.2: viii-xxiii).
9. Not to mention the self-aggrandizing commercial advertisementheaded
"Follow your Bliss in 1989" in the New YorkTimesBookReview,4 February
1989, 8, or the disagreementsabout the significanceof the termfollowing
Brendan Gill's articleon Campbell in TheNew YorkReviewofBooks(1989).
10. 1990a, 161; 1990b, 222; cf. on the Hindu anandamaya,TheHero'sJourney:
The WorldofJoseph Campbell(1990b, 210-11).
11. Frankiel (1989) raises froma Jewishperspectivethe typologicalproblem
now representedbythe waywe regardthe historicalproblemof earlyChris-
tian Gnosticism:it is the problem of the social institutionper se, whose
structuresboth protectthe experientialand suppressit because it is so un-
manageable. The problem alreadyfaced the early-Christian Paul, who was
not too helpful on the institutionalissues, and subsequentlywas of little
directrelevancein the catholicizingdevelopmentsrepresentedin the later
writingsof the New Testament.The enthusiasticspiritualismof Gnostic
Christianswho took Paul's thoughtas paradigmaticcertainlyhorrifiedthe
church Fathers.
increasingly-institutionalized
12. See, for example, King (1990, 69, 79), Sexson (1990, 141), and Lefkowitz
(1990).
13. See citationsin Doty (1990, 188 n. 12).
14. CreativeMythology (1968a), the fourthof Campbell's MasksofGodvolumes,
treatsthe gradual dissolutionof the Christianmythicsystemdominant in
the Middle Ages, and the subsequent problem of findinga satisfactory
place for the individualin European, and subsequentlyAmerican culture.
The theme recursthroughoutCampbell's works,even in ThePowerofMyth
(1988b, chap. 7), althoughit derivesultimatelyfromhis earlyworktoward
a Ph.D. in French literature.
15. An instructive contrastwillbe found in Rue (1989), a workthatdocuments
our "a-mythic"state, yet argues that there is hope in returningto the
church on the corner in order to workout a renewalof theJudaeo-Chris-
tian concept of Covenant.
16. Cf. Sexson: "Campbell's notion of the hero is bound up in a notion of soul
thatmaybe a masquerade of ego" (1990, 144).
17. See also 1990b, 127, and 1986, 99.
18. Frankielis correctin seeing that thisinvolvesa collapsing of divine tran-
scendence into a metaphysicsof life energy(1989, 119). Campbell's reac-
tion to MartinBuber, repeated severaltimes (e. g., 1972, 90), conveyshis
amazement that even such a noted religiousphilosopher could not shed
the religiousparticularismthatCampbell considerssuch a block to a new
religiousconsciousness.
19. Sexson lamentsthe excessivelyegoic aspects of Campbells hero paradigm
(1990, 144). See also Lauter (1984); Pearson (1989); and especiallyMur-
dock (1990).
20. See chapter 10 of MythstoLive By (Campbell 1972) on schizophrenia.

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 Mythand/VersusReligion 443
JosephCampbell's

21. Campbell notes the fairlyequal reliance upon Freud and Jung in TheHero
witha ThousandFaces(1968b), and his increasingrespectforJung'sscholar-
ship and ideas, in An OpenLife:JosephCampbellin Conversation withMichael
Toms(1988a, 50, 121-22). MythstoLive By (1972) has severaldiscussionsof
his relationshipswiththe two.Curiouslyhe nevermentionsthe wide range
of subsequent schools of twentiethcenturypsychologyand psychoanalysis,
let alone neo-Freudianor neojungian schools of thought.Larsen (1992,
27) indicates that "Campbell was not reallyinterestedin takingsides [be-
tween Freud and Jung], but ratherin effectively integratingthe contribu-
tions of both men under his own conceptual umbrella";he also notes that
in his elder yearsCampbell remarksthatwhilehe found nothingbad about
Freud,he foundJung'swork"fullof a secretpotency- a creativeimagina-
tion, a mythicimagination- of inexhaustiblepossibilityto contemplate
and to pursue" (33).
22. His Esalen lectureson Buddhismemphasized thispoint repeatedly,and as I
note in the text, Coward suggests that "To a great extent Campbell's
'mono' or 'master' mythis the mythof India" (1990, 166).
23. Salyernotes thatCampbell's workwas resistedby manymodernistsbecause
of the domination of evolutionarythought across the board, whereas
Campbell distrustedthe claim thatthe scienceswereleading humankindto
ultimatetruth(1992, 62).
24. One wishesCampbell had responded to some of the new scientificmodels
of the 1970s and 1980s,such as the "biogeneticstructuralism" thatI discuss
in Mythography: TheStudyofMythsand Rituals (Doty 1986, 212-13), or the
strongargumentthat"a religious(mythic)systemis a stagein the evolution
of the biologicallynecessaryadaptationof man to his environment"(Gallus
1972).
25. Salyer notes that Campbell's position on the question as to whetherthe
religiousstudiesspecialistor the mythologist ought "to believe" in the re-
cipientsof theirattentionwas crystalclear: the reductionistpositionthatin
order to studymythsor religions,one cannot believe in any is "completely
antitheticalto Campbell's" (1992, 62). The oppositionalpositionscontinue
to be held, as canvassed in Allen (1996).

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