The Power of Myth

I just finished reading The Power of Myth. The book is a series of excerpts from an interview of Joseph Campbell by Bill Moyer. Campbell compares myths and mythic motifs from different societies and concludes that many themes are repeated. For instance the stories of the fall of man, the death and resurrection of the savior of man, the final judgment of man, and other stories generally attributed to western religion actually have been told by different cultures as long ago as 5000 BC. In some cases societies that couldn’t have known about each other have the exact same mythic motifs and many of those motifs are echoed in the stories of the Old and New Testaments.

After reading it I’ve come away with the sense that there’s something inherent in the human condition or psyche that links all of us through this set of common core beliefs or mythic motifs, usually communicated through religion, that serve the purpose of instructing us on how to live in and with society and forms the basis for our understanding of the universe and our place in it.

It is definitely an interesting read. I’m considering reading some of Campbell’s other books so if anybody out there in Internet land has any recommendations I’m all ears.