The Christ Archetype & Christian Myth
The Hero
Jesus, the hero of the Christian story, is considered the physical, earthly manifestation of the cosmic Christ – one-third of the eternal trinitarian Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirt) that Christians link back to Elohim – the creator God of Genesis (and later Yahweh). Jesus is ultimate divinity wrapped in humanity – tabernacled in human flesh – both fully human and fully divine. He left direct union with the Father and came into the physical world (Departure). While on earth, he shared in the solidarity of human suffering facing the trials of life, temptation, slander, and death (Initiation). He was imbued with magical powers that aided him in his quest to reveal what God’s Kingdom (Edenic Ideal) was actually like. He submitted himself to sacrificial death, and crossing that threshold defeated death. He descended into the underworld and returned the keys to Eden, and the gift of the Spirit to the rest of humanity (boone). This transformed the human condition from separation into one of direct access to his Source and authority. He ascended into heaven to return to Union with the Father, praying for and aiding the rest of God’s children to do the same. (Return)
The Myth
The hero journey of Jesus is told within the backdrop of Christianity’s (Judeo-Christian) larger, cosmic myth. The Epic encompasses the story of humanity through a narrative arc of creation, fall, and redemption. We see a creator God – Elohim (plural ) breathing life into dust and forming humans as part of the created order, made in the creator God’s own image. The humans are unified with their God in Edenic paradise. Here, God bestows upon them the authority to bless, nurture, grow, and multiply the paradise into the rest of the world. This is their sacred purpose. Humanity gives way to the temptation of autonomy – to pursue purpose dis-integrated from divine union. From this short beginning, the rest of the story unfolds across the span of human history as man becomes tribe and tribe becomes nation attempting, for multiple millennia, unsuccessfully, to make its way back to Edenic unity. A hero comes to show the way back to God through the archetypal rhythm of LIFE, DEATH, and RESURRECTION. The hero’s life is defined by love, his death is sacrificial, and his resurrection is inevitable transfiguration into the fullness of human/divine existence. This becomes known as The Way for humanity to restore themselves through the same journey. This process of human restoration releases the spiritual energy into the rest of the created order allowing humanity to return to its purpose of expanding the dwelling place of God into all the Earth.
This story is epic! I follow this myth as my worldview. Why? Because it is changing me into the person I want to become. A person defined by love. Joseph Campbell defines myth as “the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into the human cultural manifestation.” That inexhaustible energy is love. Campbell shows us how necessary it is to have myth in our reality. Myth does not mean fantasy. Myth is not untrue. It is through myth that we encounter truth. The great danger is a society or culture’s absence of myth. With no communal symbols, frameworks, or pathways to navigate the mystery, calling, suffering, and transformation of life, we are left alone and guideless to the strange pantheon of our psyche. (5) I’m talking about the weird or perverse stuff my morality attempts to suppress. “The unconscious or resisted psychological powers that I have not thought or dared to integrate into my life.” The stuff of dreams.
Suffering as Ecstasy?
It’s interesting to note that most of the myth stories, including that of Jesus, spend the majority of their time in the initiation phase of the journey. This is the main material of any good story. This is where the suffering happens. If I could realize that the suffering I face – like when my car breaks down, or I don’t get the job, or I have to leave the country I love, or I am slandered against – if I could just realize that suffering is the raw material of redeeming ecstasy and the means by which transformation happens, maybe I could see suffering the ways saints and mystics from Paul to Julian of Norwich did.
“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
“I desired to suffer with him; for it seemed to me that if I could suffer with him, I would be more truly purified, and made more like him.”
Maybe then I could accept the Buddha’s first noble truth, that all of life is suffering, and walk full-hearted with desire towards it knowing its transforming effect to raise me from the death I don’t want to die. I used to think that suffering was the cause of trauma, and certainly, that can be proven. AND, now I’m curious if the lack of an initiation culture and solid mythology – that provides a framework for suffering – could be causing greater harm to the Western psyche.
While Christianity certainly has the framework to usher humans into “salvation” (read becoming fully human, defined by love, conduits of restoration, and in unitive awareness with the Divine), the hero’s journey is not a lens through which most (in the southeast of the United States) are familiar.
I am hopeful for a progression in our Christian societies where “Once we have broken free from the prejudices of our own provincially limited ecclesiastical, tribal, or national rendition of the world archetypes, it becomes possible to understand that the…Good News which the World Redeemer brings and which so many have been glad to hear, zealous to preach, but reluctant, apparently, to demonstrate is that God is love, that he can be, and is to be loved, and that all without exception are his children.”
Bibliography
- Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949.
- Julian of Norwich. Revelations of Divine Love. Translated by Elizabeth Spearing. London: Penguin Classics, 1998.
- Rohr, Richard. Adam’s Return: The Five Promises of Male Initiation. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 2004.
- The Buddha. The First Noble Truth. In The Dhamma: Teachings of the Buddha. Translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Accessed through The Buddhist Publication Society.
- Paul, Apostle. Philippians 3:10-11, The Holy Bible, New International Version.
About the Author
Christian Swails
Christian is the founder of CoCreation - a Startup Hub for social entrepreneurs in Savannah, Ga. He serves as the Spiritual Director for Wesley Gardens Retreat Center and Wesley Monumental United Methodist Church.14 responses to “The Christ Archetype & Christian Myth”
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Thank you Christian for your thought provoking words.
I have been reflecting on the intersection between suffering and trauma for my research and would propose that suffering is those experiences which can be used by God to prune, refine, and develop within us the fruits of the spirit. Although painful and difficult, they can enable us to become more like Jesus. However, trauma can be either be a life threatening or terrifying experience which causes us to have to adopt coping mechanisms that hinder the ability to be whole as it shatters the human heart. Those do not help refine us until further down the road of recovery.
I also firmly believe that the lack of initiation culture has harmed many young people who have entered adulthood feeling disconnected, lost and therefore following the loudest voice into behaviours that are more centred on surviving than truly living a purposeful life on a journey towards continual transformation.
Betsy, I see your point about trauma coming from a life-threatening or terrifying experience and coping as a result. Personally, I still carry a lot of trauma in my body from my time in the military. I have coping mechanisms both helpful and hurtful. I have yet to integrate them or heal from them. I appreciate you saying they don’t help to refine us until down the road of recovery. Agreed! And that gives me hope that my experiences will be refiing.
The initiation bit, I feel, is still key here, at least for me. I’m wondering if some of these life-threatening or terrifying experiences could be couched, at least in some part, as failed initiation or uninitiation. Meaning the people that should have been there to walk you through the integration were not there (communally) and the experience regresses to shame.
What are thoughts on that? Is there a deeper connection we can draw out here between harder, unnecessary traumas and initiation?
Christian, i am sorry that you still carry the impact of the trauma from when you served in the military. Acknowledging that is important and the first start on the journey towards recovery. My theology is clear that trauma is an enemy tactic to aim to destroy the blue print of humans. He is strategic in his plan to ‘steal, Kill and destroy’ (John 10:10) and stop the kingdom of God expanding. I believe God allows suffering, although does not create it, because it can refine us, but trauma is from the enemy. That may be simplistic but it helps me understand and work within the mess in our world.
I also believe that we see Gods intention for community and belonging as a theme throughout the Bible. We are exhorted to experience life in a connected way, with deep relationships that enable us to naturally process challenge and trauma. When that is not possible, due to the busyness and chaos of our culture, then coping mechanims are formed that hinder the natural ability to make sense of and express emotions around the grief, loss and pain. This causes suppression or repression and the pain can become further life altering. The modern day community of the church often no longer models hours of sitting around fires chatting and reflecting deeply whilst the children play. In our fast paced world people often want to tick church off their to do list and the focus of connection can be more around how the house or food is presented rather than the authenticity and vulnerability of shared human experience. If we understood the neurobiology of trauma and distress more and were able to have more spaces of deep relational connection, then we would need less therapy because trauma recovery would begin to take place in those safe spaces.
If i had been the one to organise your hike, I would have enjoyed bringing you together as a whole group afterwards to gently de-brief and share your feelings and emotional reactions in a careful way, preferably over food or a fire! Hopefully it would have created a space for you to say gently how frustrated you were and he could have thanked you and had the opportunity to reflect on his mistakes in a way that meant he didn’t avoid the transformation due to the discomfort but was able to feel the shame, express the regret and enjoy being re-connected into the group as a friend again. Our busy lives mean that people have become used to avoiding conflict, pain and discomfort which then causes disconnection and further pain.
Betsy, thanks for taking the time to respond deeply to this. The verdict is still out for me whether trauma is a direct tactic of the enemy. I’m not sure I hold the “enemy” as concretely as I once did. I certainly do not think God of love causes trauma. So there is this mysterious part of the universe that holds darkness, sometimes necessary darkness for me in my current model. Rather than a boogeyman, I’m trying to learn to accept it.
Regardless of this point, I am in full agreement with the loss of communal processing as a role of the Church and the neurobiological detriment we are facing because of it. Have you delved into Curt Thompson’s work? He has done some interesting work around interpersonal neurobiology from a Christian perspective. I am particularly interested in his “covenant communities” as a promising model for teaching people how to be with people again.
I would enjoy a deep discussion around your theology of the devil. That sounds stimulating and fascinating. Maybe in SA in September we can book that in! I grew up with witchdoctors using their powers to curse and kill people and so my theology has been shaped by that early reality.
I haven’t read any of Curt Thompsons work but i do write a lot about interpersonal neurobiology in my published books. This decade there is an explosion of new research regarding attachment and relationships which is providing exciting evidence for the need for communities that are safe places relationally.
Betsy. A discussion on evil and the devil would be enlightening for me. Yes, let’s plan on it. I am excited about your research project in the way of interpersonal neurobiology. This is a closet obsession of mine. Can’t wait to learn more of what your gleaning from all the research your finding.
I have been intrigued by Betsy’s and your discussion. So I’m pushing my nose into it. First of all, I would love to be in that discussion in September. Second, the community thread you both have commented on is something my brain is swirling with. How much of the choices made by others (not initiating) affect my journey? How communal is our salvation, our hope, our healing, all of it? I am exploring this topic in my research right now. After living for twelve years in a collective culture, returning to our Western individualism has been disorienting. I hold on to the communal knowing the individual is so ingrained in me. One thing I do know is that we need each other.
Hi Christian, thank you for your deep ponderings of sufferings and redemption. I sometimes have difficulty wrapping my head around it too.. even though I voice the redemption of it. I sometimes wonder if i choose to communicate it that way because the suffering is too deep for me to be unresolved. I am still unpacking suffering due to my childhood trauma of losing my mother at such a young age (that’s what my blog is about) and also other trauma such as my husband having a major health crisis. Im understanding through your blog that you are hopeful and wishful to see its redemption (re: your quote “if I could just realize that suffering is the raw material of redeeming ecstasy and the means by which transformation happens, maybe I could see suffering the ways saints and mystics from Paul to Julian of Norwich did”). Thank you for your vulnerability on that. It is not easy to unpack the redeeming factor. My prayer is that it will come for you. I wonder if you ever had a MENTOR that Campbell talks about as one of the hero’s journey archetypes?
Judith, thank you for sharing vulnerably about your mother and husband. You’re right, what does redemption even mean in the midst of this? Is it based on external circumstances being restored? Is it something of an interior journey that causes great shifts in becoming? It’s certainly still filled with mystery for me. Yet the fact remains, life is filled with suffering so what worldview allows us to face it, maybe even befriend it, and let it transform us??
It’s interesting that you asked about a mentor. I have often said, no. I ‘ve never had a proper mentor and our culture is at a lossof elders and mentors. This has been coming up for me frequently this month. I have often thought of mentors as being there for the long haul of many different aspects of life. But the way Campbell seems to describe it, it’s like a supernatural aid in time of need, pointing you onto your next step in the journey. Offering words that hold you in the trails ahead. Something more of a guide. In that case, I have had many, in fact, my universe has been abundant with those types of guides my entire life, from the veteran who helped me join the military and kept me safe when I made dumb mistakes, to the spiritual director who showed me the way to spiritual formation, to a Pastor who saw leadership in me and gave me a chance to grow into it.
Thanks for helping me think through that.
Thank you for sharing this sacred journey. I enjoyed getting to know you through this blog.
Judith, thank you for sharing vulnerably about your mother and husband. You’re right, what does redemption even mean in the midst of this? Is it based on external circumstances being restored? Is it something of an interior journey that causes great shifts in becoming? It’s certainly still filled with mystery for me. Yet the fact remains, life is filled with suffering so what worldview allows us to face it, maybe even befriend it, and let it transform us??
It’s interesting that you asked about a mentor. I have often said, no. I ‘ve never had a proper mentor and our culture is at a lossof elders and mentors. This has been coming up for me frequently this month. I have often thought of mentors as being there for the long haul of many different aspects of life. But the way Campbell seems to describe it, it’s like a supernatural aid in time of need, pointing you onto your next step in the journey. Offering words that hold you in the trails ahead. Something more of a guide. In that case, I have had many, in fact, my universe has been abundant with those types of guides my entire life, from the veteran who helped me join the military and kept me safe when I made dumb mistakes, to the spiritual director who showed me the way to spiritual formation, to a Pastor who saw leadership in me and gave me a chance to grow into it.
Thanks for helping me think through that.
I appreciate your thoughts on how a myth does not mean it is untrue but points to truth. Though I consider myself an openminded person it was a challenge for me to refer to Jesus’ story as a myth. This story is the truest part of my purpose. In light of how you put it, I feel more comfortable with it.
In the last few years I have done a deep dive into the early Old Testament stories as myth. The archeological record has minimal evidence of the stories which has led many academics to believe they were not literal events. Also, the cultures of the Sumerians, Arcadians and Babylonians that predated and surrounded Israel have similar literature style and symbol as stories of the Old Testament. There does seem to be borrowing of the myths but with a twist that reveals a God who values and loves his people.
Anyway, all this to ask, how far can we see these stories as divine truths breaking through to humankind, before they actually have to be literally true? If Christ shedding his blood never actually happened in history can we still be saved into his kingdom of heaven on earth? Is the symbolism enough or does the event actually have to occur?
Jess, these are profound questions. Questions that we need to be asking. Questions that we need to let those in our congregation ask, or ask them.
I have come across similar evidence for old testament myths in my research in the past. I now refer to Genesis as the Genesis poem. It’s helpful to hold it that way and read it as poetry. Poetry requires humility. Many in the West do not know how to read Western poetry, let alone Middle Eastern poetry from thousands of years ago. That thought alone has allowed me to relax and be happened to by the work.
I think there is also a fear if we do this with certain parts of the Bible, how long until any of it is authoritative. Who am in my faith and who is God if the Bible is up for discussion as not being dropped from heaven complete, perfect, and without fault or contradiction? We have asked the Bible to do something it was not intended to do. The Bible is a library, not a book. We walk into a section of the library and prepare to read the type of literature in a certain way depending on what section we are in: history, poetry, narrative, apocalyptic (not that there is a section for this in the local library, maybe in Portland), etc. Not only this, we are walking into a middle eastern library that is ancient. So much humility is required to do this. It will take a lifetime just to breach the surface of the wisdom of that library. While studying the factual evidence of some of the stories is edifying, I have found the bible, for the most part, more beneficial when I let it work on me by just being around it. Being happened to by it. Letting it read me. It’s wisdom literature, not statistics. (except for Numbers)
But none of this addresses your final, profoundly important question. I actually do think we have tons of evidence that supports a historical Jesus being crucified. Though I am not an expert on that. You asked about the blood of Christ “saving” us into his “Kingdom” on Earth.
These are those big words with varied meanings that need to be brought under the roof of common understanding before we can address the question. What is your meaning of salvation? What is your meaning of Kingdom? By what means does “shedding of blood” – meaning a God-Man bleeding to death, create a cosmic shift in reality in which you and I are saved into this kingdom? Whatever that means.
There are some interesting concepts around atonement theory that are helpful here. The popular belief is penal substitutionary atonement theory. And this is a theory alongside about 6 or 7 other theories. But it was the one that caught on and hung around. It’s essentially the story we have always heard. God’s wrath needed to be satisfied in order to be near us, so he sent his son to be murdered in our place so he could stand to be around us again. Because He is Holy. Ok, I’ll admit that was a bit harsh of a rendition of it but honestly I’m over it. Some have referred to it as the “Divine Child Abuse theory”.. Another one that I actually prefer states that God came to share in solidarity with the suffering of humanity and in doing so freed them to be transformed into love by being love in their suffering.
Anyway, the definitions are important for holding these big concepts. My understanding of salvation and kingdom are listed in this blog. They don’t have anything to do with heaven and a statement of faith. And they don’t rely so heavily on the control of scripture. I’m ok with being wrong about things and living in mystery. My litmus test for my faith is not about being right anymore, it’s about what is or is not transforming me into a person defined by love. That may be overly simplistic but I like my mystery with a dose of simplicity.
Christian,
Your essay presents a powerful and insightful examination of the hero’s journey, particularly through the lens of Jesus’ life and the Christian narrative. You effectively use Joseph Campbell’s concept of myth to deepen the understanding of Jesus as the archetypal hero whose story encompasses creation, fall, and redemption.
Your idea that suffering is not just an obstacle but a transformative and redemptive process is a central theme in your essay, one that I found compelling.
Suffering isn’t usually attributed to positive transformation and yet you invite us to reconsider viewing personal hardships and challenges as opportunities for growth and transformation rather than just pain.
Your hope for a progression in Christian societies where the message of God’s love and universal kinship is fully embraced is inspiring. It’s encouraging to think of a world where spiritual wisdom transcends boundaries of culture and denomination. This sense of unity could be transformative for individuals and communities alike, offering a more inclusive and compassionate vision of faith.
If we were to align with your perspective, it seems that instead of avoiding pain and suffering, we should embrace it. I would also suggest that this doesn’t apply only to our own suffering for personal growth, but that we should also lean into the pain and suffering of others in order to help them grow, ultimately reflecting Christ in the process. If we could just show up for people, what greater display of love and of Christ. Would you agree?