In Mercy Ships, all long-term crew assent to the statement of faith (The Apostles’ Creed), but short-term crew are not required to. Consequently, short-term crew are a mix of backgrounds, including committed, mature Christians and those with no personal commitment to the Christian faith but willing to live by the organization’s Code of Conduct, which is informed by Christian values and worldview. This creates an intentional environment where those who do not follow Jesus have the opportunity to enter and experience a community that does.<\/p>\n
I was recently aboard one of our vessels, speaking with a short-term crew member who had questions about faith. She had a nominal faith tradition that was not Christianity and had elementary but important questions about what Christians believe. As we discussed the historicity of scriptural writings, I couldn’t help but think about my time reading Campbell’s *The Hero with a Thousand Faces*.<\/p>\n
While I found some of the material speculative (the application to dreams, for example), I was taken aback by concepts that demonstrated Jesus himself as the living, historical, and full embodiment of the hero.<\/p>\n
Echoes of the hero reverberate throughout scripture: Abram, Joseph, Moses, David, Gideon, Jonah, Esther, the list could go on. But what would it mean if God himself were the hero? Campbell states that “perhaps the most eloquent possible symbol of this mystery is that of the god crucified, the god offered, ‘himself to himself.'” [1] What if the Creator were the self-sacrificing champion for whom death was inconclusive? The Christian faith is unique and remarkable in that it positions the life, death, and literal resurrection of Jesus, God made flesh, as the fulcrum of history.<\/p>\n
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
\nJesus (John 3:1, English Standard Version)<\/p>\n
As Jesus was lifted up on the cross and his life was given as ransom for many (1 Tim. 2:3-5), new and eternal life is available, both for him and for others: “every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9-10).<\/p>\n
The Christian worldview proposes that the path to a fulfilling life is through following the way of Jesus. When we follow our master in laying our own lives down for the benefit of others, not only do other people benefit, but we ourselves receive new, resurrection life in return. It is in dying that we are raised to eternal life.<\/p>\n
Consequently, we, too, are invited into what Campbell describes as the hero’s journey: called into adventure, struggling with the call, discovering our mentors, stepping through liminal spaces into new territories [2], enduring trials, facing the darkest places and enemies, bringing our new-found discoveries back, and experiencing new life.<\/p>\n
Jungian\/Campbellian archetypes [3] may exist in our own lives too\u2013threshold guardians [4] we have had to face when stepping into new places, or tricksters who create mischief but we learn to love for lightening our hearts with laughter and what we discover to be good intent. Like Christ, we will face the true enemy of our souls in some kind of wilderness or dark night.<\/p>\n
The parts of the book that I struggled to understand include those that are specific to domains that I have relatively little study in and experience with\u2013that is Freudian psychoanalysis and pathologies of the unconscious and dreams [5]. While it made some of the material harder to grasp, it also exposed me to a world of thinking that has heavily impacted many societies and I have been largely ignorant of. I consider this a gift.<\/p>\n
This journey into a new realm of knowledge is a new adventure on my own journey. I have ordered a few new books: Freud and Jung, my new mentors. I expect I will open them and discover some thresholds to cross: concepts to wrestle with, terms to familiarize, truth propositions to analyze and consider, and a road back to the beginning but having experienced transformation; the learning process itself an instance of the monomyth.<\/p>\n
Having now seen the monomyth, I find it difficult to unsee. This leads me to another question: now how much of my recognition of the patterns is because the pattern is objectively true, and how much is because of availability bias\u2013because the knowledge of the monomyth is readily available in my mind, quickly accessible and usable as an interpretive lens?<\/p>\n
I expect I will need to continue to work through these concepts and determine how they fit into my thinking framework. What parts do I accept as true, which are conditionally true, and which are not true? Like my colleague with questions about Christ, I join in the journey and adventure of discovery, learning, and, ultimately, transformation.<\/p>\n
[1] Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 3rd ed. Bollingen Series XVII. Novato, Calif: New World Library, 2008, 223.<\/p>\n
[2] Meyer, Jan, and Ray Land. Overcoming Barriers to Student Understanding: Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge. London: Routledge, 2006. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4324\/9780203966273<\/a>.<\/p>\n