{"id":35366,"date":"2024-01-30T22:31:02","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T06:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=35366"},"modified":"2024-02-01T12:00:47","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T20:00:47","slug":"fixing-our-souls-gaze-on-the-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/fixing-our-souls-gaze-on-the-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"Fixing Our Soul\u2019s Gaze on the Hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joseph Campbell\u2019s, \u201cThe Hero with a Thousand Faces\u201d<\/em>, is a book about comparative mythology that reveals all great heroic tales share a common narrative arc that has shaped stories across space and time. Once you see it, it will be hard to unsee.<\/p>\n

As I reflect on the stories that have been told in my home, and ignited my imagination, I can see Campbell\u2019s trellis at play and its effect on me. My grandfather was a great storyteller who could pull myths out of the air or make heroic characters, like Robin Hood and Mowgli, come to life out of the pages of a book. As a child, I always imagined myself as the hero of the story, never the villain or some marginal character. I don\u2019t think that this sprung from an elevated view of self but rather from the desire to become a better version of who I already was. My heroes were courageous, kind, and self-sacrificing, and I wanted to become more like them. Somehow this didn\u2019t materialize in my teen years.<\/p>\n

While Campbell reveals the monomyth in various cultures and religions, I was most compelled by his lament over the loss of a monomyth in a secular society. \u201cHero\u201d<\/em> was not simply written to reveal a universally compelling storytelling trellis, but to warn us of the danger of losing our ability to recognize the role of symbolism, ritual, and myth in shaping our lives and our societies. Campbell pinpoints three significant developments in modern human history that caused the demise of the monomyth and its symbolic world. He writes, \u201cAll of which is far indeed from the contemporary view; for the democratic ideal of the self-determining individual, the invention of the power-driven machine, and the development of the scientific method of research have so transformed human life that the long-inherited, timeless universe of symbols has collapsed.\u201d[1]<\/a> What remains is a mechanistic secular society that is driven by power and money rather than the desire to become transformed so that we can make the world a better place.[2]<\/a> Hauntingly he writes, \u201cBut there the meaning is absolute unconscious. One does not know toward what one moves. One does not know by which one is propelled.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

On the one hand I understand the desire of the West for individualism, particularly to correct the abuses of societies in which duty to the group supersedes all individual needs and preferences. In these cases, the unique image of God in each person is diminished beyond the point of recognition. However, I deeply resonate with Campbell\u2019s angst over the modern human condition and echo his concern. It’s a matter of prayer, almost daily, as I think about neighbours and friends who live in this fragmented reality.<\/p>\n

Columnist, David Brooks, also believes that the antidote for the pathologies of our individualized society is greater exposure to art and mythology. In a New York Times column titled \u201cHow to Save a Sad, Lonely, Angry and Mean Society\u201d<\/em>. He writes, that by being exposed to culture, \u201c\u2026you are lured by beauty and deeply pierced by myths that seem primeval and strange.\u201d[4]<\/a> He describes his own experience of reading a particular novel, \u201cI had travelled in time back into some primeval world of bonfires, dancing and Dionysian frenzy, and it left a residue, which I guess you would call a greater awareness of the metaphysical, the transcendent. Life can be much wilder than it seems growing up on a suburban street.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

As I think then of the world into which preachers proclaim the gospel, I wonder what it would look like for us to leave our listeners with the kind of soul residue that they might describe as a greater awareness of the transcendent. The temptation of the preacher is to unintentionally appeal to secular individualism by presenting a pragmatic gospel. I have heard multiple sermons that have preached biblical stories as a kind of heroic example that we should all follow. We find the positive traits of leaders in scripture and compel people to become better versions of themselves. For example, in a message about David, the congregation might be challenged to become \u201cDavid-like\u201d to slay the giants in their lives. Preachers have done this with Moses, Abraham, Nehemiah, and Elijah. Even a geriatric like Caleb has been touted as a hero because at 85 years old he asked for the toughest land to take when Israel was receiving the land.[6]<\/a> I think it would be fair to say that we share an obsession with heroes in evangelicalism. We often tell hero stories from the Bible, like my grandfather told fairy tales, with the intent of encouraging people to become like the hero in the story. In doing so, I wonder if we preach the Christian message as a form of self-actualization. We proclaim that we can be the hero of the story, the best version of ourselves, a sort of self-savior.<\/p>\n

However, in doing so, we could inadvertently neglect to point people to the real hero at the centre of the Christian story. The writer of Hebrews continually calls us to \u201cFix our gaze on Jesus\u201d[7]<\/a>. They want us to fix the gaze of our souls on what is happening in the heavenly realms, so that we are drawn out of our mundane, sometimes troublesome lives, and into the story and world of our Hero King, Jesus. To do this, the writer of Hebrews presents a stunning, dramatic picture of Jesus and his ministry. This idea of fixing our gaze on Jesus is far more significant than a quick glimpse at the bible. It is stronger than simply spending an hour a week taking in corporate worship. It\u2019s a moment-by-moment awareness of the reality of Jesus. It is taking our attention and fixing our inner gaze on him so that who he is, what he has done, what he\u2019s doing currently, and what he will do in the future, transforms this present moment for us here on earth. His kingdom comes in us. We experience life in all of its fullness. Heaven collides with earth. A heavenly residue. And once this is seen, it can’t be unseen.<\/p>\n

In our preaching and disciple-making, perhaps what is needed, and what our hearts are truly longing for, is more revelation of the Ultimate Hero.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em>, 3. ed., with rev, The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell 17 (Novato, Calif: New World Library, 2008).p.333<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Campbell, 334.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Campbell, 334.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> David Brooks, \u201cOpinion | How to Save a Sad, Lonely, Angry and Mean Society,\u201d The New York Times<\/em>, January 26, 2024, sec. Opinion, https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/01\/25\/opinion\/art-culture-politics.html.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Brooks.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Numbers 14.12<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Hebrews 12.1,2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joseph Campbell\u2019s, \u201cThe Hero with a Thousand Faces\u201d, is a book about comparative mythology that reveals all great heroic tales share a common narrative arc that has shaped stories across space and time. Once you see it, it will be hard to unsee. As I reflect on the stories that have been told in my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[789,2967],"class_list":["post-35366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-campbell","tag-dlgp03","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35366"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35438,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35366\/revisions\/35438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}