By: Jennifer Vernam on February 1, 2023
In reading Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces [1] I am disturbed by the implications it has on my reading of the Bible. If we are all telling a story with the same archetypes, aren’t we just all telling the same story? How can the Bible be the greatest story ever told if…
By: Shonell Dillon on February 1, 2023
The Protestant Ethic & The Spirit of Capitalism In the anxiousness to have the woman he loved get to him one of my favorite singers says the line “be it train, plane, automobile, …get here. His feelings said by any means necessary I want the goal to be you here with me. Many things in…
By: David Beavis on February 1, 2023
David Brooks, a New York Times political and cultural commentator, wrote this line in his book The Second Mountain: “Never underestimate the power of the environment you work in to gradually transform who you are.”[1] The subtle influence of our environment must not to be dismissed. As with a gas leak in a kitchen, if…
By: Jenny Dooley on February 1, 2023
In reading through Joseph Campbell’s, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, I found that mythological stories serve a similar purpose to that of iconography. I had the experience of seeing through to deeper truths and meaning behind the fantastical tales I read. Myths are like icons. They are windows to a new way of understanding,…
By: Eric Basye on February 1, 2023
The Age of Globalization, as described by renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs, refers to the increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of the world’s economies, societies, and cultures in recent decades. Globalization has been driven by advances in transportation and communication technologies, which have enabled goods, services, information, and ideas to flow more freely across borders. According to…
By: Travis Vaughn on January 31, 2023
Luke Skywalker. That name and that story probably arranged more of the furniture in my young mind than any other hero’s story. As I grew older, married, and had children, there were many other “similar” adventures to invade the life of our growing family. The Princes Bride, The Matrix, Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia,…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on January 30, 2023
The Hero With A Thousand Faces is a book about discovering ourselves through myths and stories. It was my intention to complete the reading and the blog a week ahead to give myself time to pay greater attention to the posts of my cohort. I have discovered that writing on Thursday does not allow me…
By: John Fehlen on January 30, 2023
From 2004-2010 American television had a show that ran for six seasons on ABC. The show was called LOST, and I, along with my family and close friends, were HOOKED. Each week we would tune in live, or watch it downloaded from iTunes, to see what was gonna happen to Hugo, Sawyer, Jack, Sayid, Kate,…
By: Tim Clark on January 30, 2023
According to Time Magazine, Joseph Campbell wrote one of the 100 most influential books of the 20th century in “The Hero With A Thousand Faces.”[1] I had been exposed to Campbell’s work through a Psychology course I took as an undergraduate; we were assigned to watch “The Power of Myth”, the 1988 series of PBS…
By: Noel Liemam on January 30, 2023
Threshold Concept “…that knowledge should indeed be ‘troubling’ in order for it to be transformative, this book provides new perspectives on helping students through such conceptual difficulty in order to enhance learning and teaching environments (Meyer and land, 2006).” The barriers to understanding exits when intellectual and practical comprehension is absent. Basically, one can crosses…
By: Russell Chun on January 30, 2023
I have two things in common with Joseph Campbell, we both grew up as Catholic/Animists. As a reminder, “Animism is the belief that everything has a soul or spirit, an anima in Latin, including animals, plants, rocks, mountains, rivers, and stars. Animists believe each anima is a powerful spirit that can help or hurt them…
By: Kim Sanford on January 30, 2023
Joseph Campbell’s seminal work points to an underlying reality that myth and story speak to the human heart (or as Campbell would call it, the psyche). Through story we instruct, we connect, we inspire and persuade, and we even rejoice. It’s also how we deal with our imperfection, our brokenness. As Campbell says, “Modern literature…
By: Kally Elliott on January 29, 2023
(Note: I have no idea why the font changes from a light black to a bolded black. I played with all the options to change font and boldness, etc and nothing would work.) Most of us have probably read the quote by Joseph Campbell, “Follow your bliss.” I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it on many…
By: Kristy Newport on January 29, 2023
While reading Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A history from the 1730’s to the 1980’s by D.W. Bebbington, I pondered how the Evangelical church has had an impact in my life. In this blog I will chronicle my own church/spiritual history. Bebbington’s work spans 250 years of church history. My life has not been that long,…
By: Cathy Glei on January 29, 2023
First Stage of the Journey: Call to Adventure It is a scary place to be. . . the moment you leave the status quo and pursue a call to adventure. It was March 23, 2021 for me. I was an elementary school teacher, Kindergarten, to be exact. School was supposed to be closed for two…
By: Laura Fleetwood on January 29, 2023
Whoever coined the phrase, “there are two sides to every story,” never studied systems theory or emotional triangles. Based on chapter seven of Edwin Friedman’s book A Failure of Nerve, it seems there are actually three sides to most relational issues–the perspective of the two parties at the root of the struggle and that of…
By: Mary Kamau on January 28, 2023
We are living in interesting times, and I often find myself trying to reconcile my mind with things that are hard to believe are happening because they defy logic and convention. Where are they coming from, this is a question I find myself asking many times as I look at the trends in our world…
By: Kally Elliott on January 28, 2023
For the next eight weeks I get to teach a Family to Family Course for NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness). The Family to Family Class is an education program for family members and caregivers of individuals living with mental illness. The program is designed to provide family members and caregivers with the tools and…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on January 27, 2023
Edwin Friedman, in his book, A Failure of Nerve, Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, offers groundbreaking and challenging insights into successful leadership. In my first reading of Friedman’s book, I was struck by his emphasis on the importance of leaders to show up with a strong sense of self, an ability to…
By: Chad McSwain on January 27, 2023
There is no better masterclass in leadership than Failure of Nerve. It brilliantly diagnosis the problem of modern society and the lack of leadership, only to invite the leader to look at themselves to understand where the problems truly lies. This is the unique and timeless perspective that Friedman offers in the ubiquitous leadership environment…
