The Hero Within and Cultural Bound Prisons
There were many directions that I could go in writing my post this week. I saw the role of the leader in Joseph Campbell’s work, for example, “The Call to Adventure” and “Supernatural Aid.”[1]. I also cannot watch television or movies in the same way due to looking for these concepts imbedded within. However, there were a couple thoughts that really stuck with me.
The Hero Within “I am that hero!” proclaims Larry-Boy in Phil Vischer and David Mullen’s song titled Larry-Boy.[2] A statement that, I believe, down deep inside, many of us wish we could proclaim about ourselves. Who among us love to watch the movies and television shows involving a hero, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, and even the Incredible Hulk. There is a reason why DC Comics and Marvel Comics have made millions over the years starting off with comic books to the fast-paced adventures seen in today’s movies. I believe we watch them, because down deep inside of us is a yearning in some way to identify with them. Perhaps you, like my wife are not into the superhero movies, but enjoy a quest like Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings or Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy in C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. Joseph Campell writes “The hero, therefore, is the man or woman who has been able to battle past his personal and local historical limitations to the generally valid, normally human form.”[3] He goes on to say “The hero has died as a modern man; but as eternal man—perfected, unspecific, universal man—he has been reborn. His second solemn task and deed therefore . . . is to return to us, transfigured, and teach the lesson he has learned of life renewed.”[4] As a leader, I want to be like Frodo, return from a heroic quest and be able to sit down and teach others what I learned.
Cultural Bound Prisons After reading Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces and listening to segments of a 6 part video series in which Bill Moyer interviewed Campbell a couple years before Campbell’s death, I found myself wondering how many Christians, would say that Campbell is blasphemous, that he would include stories from the Bible in his collection of mythology. However, I found Bill Moyers’ comment to Campbell interesting. In the second video in which Campbell discusses the power of myth Moyer says. “The interesting thing to me is that far from undermining my faith, your work in mythology has liberated my faith from the cultural prisons from which it had been sentenced.”[5] How often do we put God in a box that we have built using our own cultural biases about what God can do, who God is and even who God can use for his purposes. Camacho said “Everything begins with our view of God.”[6] The God of the Bible must be appropriately translated; John Walton argues that to truly understand the Bible, we must not only translate the textual language but also the culture to whom the text was written[7] I appreciate Walton as he expresses his interpretations of the Bible as propositions. By using the word proposition, Walton leaves room for the fact that despite all the research he has done, he could still be wrong. This is a great frame of mind, one that most people should have when they argue any belief. Kathryn Schulz talks about the stipulations of the “’Cuz It’s True Constraint”[8] Schulz states that in our minds, ‘cuz it’s true’ “applies only to our own beliefs”, however, she points out later on that “our beliefs are really beliefs once removed. Our faith that we are right is faith that someone else is right.”[9] I like this, especially as I work college students, getting them to try to form their own belief system. Many of them are still resting on their parent’s faith and belief system. Walton states that we call something a myth because what is stated doesn’t fit our personal beliefs for how God or the world works. But we must remember that what we call mythology “was a real description of deep beliefs”[10] Walton argues that because of scientific theory and explanations for how the world was created and works, for some, our Christian beliefs are mythology.[11] Why do I bring this up? As we study leadership from a global perspective, we must consider how our cultures have shaped our ideas of what leadership looks like. We need to truly be open to hearing and digesting what others have to say about leadership and not just spit it out claiming it to be some sort of blasphemy or mythology. Let us be open and willing to possibly be freed from our own cultural prisons as we listen to the deep beliefs of others.
Now, if you will excuse me, after reading The Hero with a Thousand Faces and listening to Bill Moyers’ interview Campbell, I need to lie down on a couch and share all my dreams with a Freudian or Jungian psychoanalyst. Maybe I will discover a hero deep inside me just waiting to be released.
[1] [1] Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces 2 ed. (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1973), 36
[2]. Nicole C Mullen, vocalist, “Larry-Boy” by Phil Vischer and David Mullen, released April 11, 1997, track 13 on VeggieTunes 2
[3] Campbell, 19.
[4] Campbell, 20.
[5] Kino Lorber, “Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth – Ep. 2: ‘The Message of the Myth’”, August 23, 2022, 30:48 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aee5DJ9DSwU&t=1849s
[6] Camacho, 50.
[7] John H. Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One (Downers Grove, Inter-Varsity Press, 2009).
[8] Kathryn Schulz, Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2010).
[9] Schulz, 109, 141.
[10] Walton, 12, 13.
[11] Walton 13.
About the Author
Jeff Styer
Jeff Styer lives in Northeast Ohio's Amish Country. He has degrees in Social Work and Psychology and currently works as a professor of social work at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. Jeff is married to his wife, Veronica, 25+ years. Together they have 4 beautiful children (to be honest, Jeff has 4 kids, Veronica says she is raising 5). Jeff loves the outdoors, including biking, hiking, camping, birding, and recently picked up disc golf.20 responses to “The Hero Within and Cultural Bound Prisons”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Great post Jeff! I love John Walton and his contribution to understanding culture in the context of Scripture.
As you’ve worked with college students helping them to form a worldview, what have been some helpful ways you have guided them towards seeing their own culturally bound biases that impact their belief systems?
Ryan
Many of our classes focus on helping our social work students see the world through the eyes of others. It seems we are continually bringing up the concept of our biases and in classes and through papers students process their own biases. Outside of our department, I don’t know. There is an activity in the class that all first-year students take that asks them to pick a topic they are passionate about and provide arguments that would support the opposing view. Students are then to process how the exercise made them feel. However, many students seem to default to giving a rebuttal for why the other side is wrong and miss the point of the exercise.
Hi Jeff, thanks for your post. I think you’re right that we have a tendency to put God in a box. And then when God reveals that he’s larger than the box, it can be disorienting and uncomfortable.
You also said:
“We need to truly be open to hearing and digesting what others have to say about leadership and not just spit it out claiming it to be some sort of blasphemy or mythology. Let us be open and willing to possibly be freed from our own cultural prisons as we listen to the deep beliefs of others.”
Can you help me understand what you mean by this, or can you give me some examples of what this might look like?
Christy,
Maybe a good example of this is in Oxford, when Martyn Percy talked about not everyone being called to be a disciple. I know that his comments didn’t necessarily sit well with everyone. Because we are a group who wants to learn and keep an open mind, I think most people processed Dr. Percy’s comments and came to their own conclusions. However, if you were to make that statement in many of our churches today, I think people would find that statement blasphemous. Our so called cultural prison would say Jesus commanded us to make disciples of all nations, that means everyone needs to be discipled, people cannot just be a follower. Looking at John Walton’s book that I referenced, he suggests that Genesis 1 is not a material account of creation but more of a functional account, giving order/purpose to the creation. He allows the possibility that science’s explanation for the material creation of the earth could be true.
There are a lot of people that would not even entertain that he might be correct based on there strong beliefs that the creation account is a historical account detailing exactly how it was created.
Brilliant Jeff. The notion of cultural prisons and their impact on our views of God is really interesting. How can Christians navigate the balance between preserving the integrity of their faith and being open to liberating it from cultural biases?
Glyn
I think exposures to other cultures even within our faith can help us break free from our biases. I attend a small Presbyterian church in small village located in the heart of Amish Country, but I love going up to my sister churches located in inner-city Cleveland. Being exposed to a different culture’s style of worship and preaching can at first being challenging, with a lot of “that’s not the way we do it” or “that’s not how I interpret that passage of scripture” being said internally at first. The other piece, which is what I teach my social work students, is that we must maintain an attitude of cultural humility. The willingness to learn from another culture and see the persons within the different culture as experts from whom we can learn. The attitude of humility allows us to be open and not defensive, it allows to see and appreciate differences without the differences having to be “wrong”.
Jeff, thank you for this great read. A lot to jump in on but since much has already been said I figured I’d build here adding my thoughts.
1) I too have found that being exposed to other styles of worship/communion with God within Christianity is a really valuable thing. Growing up in a charismatic Christian home one of the core ways I’ve connected to God is through the movement of the Spirit, easily felt when in praise/ worship/dance. I’ll never forget entering an Episcopal church years ago and thinking these people must not no God because they sat in the pews so quietly and didn’t show much emotion. However, it didn’t take long before God convicted me, saying “How dare you limit me Akwese, I operate just as much through silence as I do through running and weeping. That began the beginning of a series of years where God invited me to experience him through a variety of contemplative practices I had never thought to even engage in before.
2) How do you teach your students to cultivate and maintain a sense of cultural humility? This was a foundational teaching point in my social work program as well. However, while the intent was good, there was a lot of room for growth when it came to implementation via praxis, especially on a systematic and structural level.
Additionally, there seems to be a fine line between knowing how to see someone as an expert where their voice is welcomed and they are given both voice and vote at the table, while also being mindful not to make individuals carry the weight of representation, answering all the questions for an entire culture or race… I’m curious if these conversations have come up amongst your students and how you are exploring them?
Akwese,
Thanks for your comments. How do we prevent someone from being the token representative of their culture? In class, we discuss the importance of not allowing that to happen; we process a case study that details this occurring and discuss how to handle it differently. However, this is something I struggle with as a professor. How do I find the balance of using culturally diverse persons to share their life experience with students while at the same time not feel “used.” Our University is in White rural Midwest America and our diversity is minimal. For my Cultural and Human Diversity class I try to bring in guest speakers as we cover different race/ethnicities. Nancy Blackman was gracious enough to video chat with my class this past fall and there is a Black staff member, Tavaris, who has shared the last few years. Their talks really enhance my student’s learning more than listening to a White person talk each week. If we happen to be discussing an ethnicity that is the same as someone in my class, I will not ask them questions but will allow them to share if they want. I hope that my students pick up on my behavior. I will ask a student privately if I missed anything I should have shared.
Jeff, I am eager to go watch that Bill Moyers interview. I’m wondering if the same is true of you? “The interesting thing to me is that far from undermining my faith, your work in mythology has liberated my faith from the cultural prisons from which it had been sentenced.”
How has this week’s work shifted your faith with regard to any specific cultural lens? Or has it not shifted?
Just read the other comments above mine (I don’t usually read them first, so as not to influence my own reaction). Interesting how so many picked out the “cultural prisons” reference!
Debbie,
The first two interviews I listened to were really good and I do plan on taking time to finish them. Having previously read Dr. Walton’s books where he discusses the creation stories of other Mesopotamian cultures changed my perspective of how I read the Creation account, seeing it as a functional creation versus material. So nothing really changed regarding my faith this week. But what has changed is a renewed interest in reviewing Jungian psychology and the various archetypes as an explanation for how we relate to the world around us. I hadn’t given Jung much thought since the 1990’s, but this week’s reading and an unrelated podcast both incorporated Jungian psychology.
Jeff,
I have to say your headline grabbed my attention straight away.
Wow, so much truth about the connection between Marvel superheroes and our deep yearnings. I admit, I watched Wonder Woman hoping I would have the bravery to fight evil and bring peace.
And, to your point of how many people (I mean … Christians) would find Campbell blasphemous, I say … probably more than you think, but I am not one of them. 😬
I am in Moyer’s camp. I think Christians and many people who align to a particular faith can become very narrow-minded and funnel-focused without seeing the bigger picture.
And this statement, “As we study leadership from a global perspective, we must consider how our cultures have shaped our ideas of what leadership looks like” is spot on!
When you arise from your couch session, may you know that you have been a hero all along. 😉
Jeff, thanks for your thoughts on Campbell. You mentioned how your students might still be resting on the shoulders of their parents’ faith and belief systems.
I wonder how many adults have never really done the work to really know what they believe beyond what they learned as a child. I am curious how you go about moving your students in that direction.
One of the things that drew me to this program is the fact that is does value the global perspective. While I don’t know that it isn’t different in other countries, my experience is that Americans generally think that whatever we have, think, or do is the best. It is an arrogant approach. This book confirms that for me.
Diane — I too wonder how many adults have yet to work out their own faith from that of their upbringing. More so, I wonder how many people actually know God from a relational standpoint and out of those how many desire to become “on fire” in their faith vs stay in a comfortable, socially acceptable place of lukewarmness….
Diane,
Thanks for your comments. You ask a good question. I think I encourage students to do this by asking thought provoking questions. For example, this week in one of my classes, I discussed Political Justice. A topic every student loves 😂. Yesterday we talked about what might be perceived as political injustices. I leave it up to them to decide but for example I discussed a constitutional amendment that was added to Ohio’s constitution back in 2022 allowing only US citizens to vote. I questioned them whether or not it’s right to prevent a permanent legal US resident who has lived and paid taxes in the same community for the past 20 years the opportunity to decide who can be on their school board or whether or not to approve a tax levy for fire protection simply because they have chosen not to file for US Citizenship.? These are things they never considered, and I try to get them to answer those type of questions and form their own beliefs.
I appreciate your thought about liberation from cultural conditioning. It reminds me of the book “Your God is Too Small” by J.B. Phillips. “There is…no easy answer to the evil and suffering problem and no easy road to its solution. But Christ tackled the matter radically and realistically by winning the allegiance of a few men and women to a new way of living…They were to be the spearhead of good against evil.” These few are the heroes of our faith and I can see you joining the ranks!
I appreciate your thought about liberation from cultural conditioning. It reminds me of the book “Your God is Too Small” by J.B. Phillips. “There is…no easy answer to the evil and suffering problem and no easy road to its solution. But Christ tackled the matter radically and realistically by winning the allegiance of a few men and women to a new way of living…They were to be the spearhead of good against evil.” These few are the heroes of our faith and I can see you joining the ranks! The world has a way of trying to get us back to those prisons – what strategies might you employ to remain free?
Erica
I have spent the past few years freeing myself of several cultural prisons I have been locked in. I have introduced myself to different cultures and I listen to very thought-provoking podcasts. One such podcast is Theology in the Raw. Preston Sprinkle brings on guests from all different belief systems and discusses a whole range of topics. I have really enjoyed his podcasts on Transgender as I try to educate myself on various points of view in order to adequately teach my students.
Hi Jeff,
Thank you for your post. You are spot on about the mention of ‘Cuz It’s True Constraint’ and the need for individuals to form their own belief systems, apart from inherited faith, aligns with the challenge of breaking free from cultural preconceptions.’ I totally agree! Your closing humor about lying down on a couch for a Freudian or Jungian psychoanalysis adds a light touch to the serious topics discussed. It highlights the complexity of self-discovery and the potential hero within.
Jeff! I must ditto a comment that I read about our myopic tendencies and putting God in a box. This week’s reading has definitely challenged me on how I see God and how to see God work in uncommon ways by using the illustrations Campbell presents. As you spoke of being freed from cultural prisons it resonated with me as I spoke in part to this in my post last week. As an educator, I want to know what cultural prisons come to mind that you have been freed from in your journey.