On 4/27/10 2:28 PM, "David Buchanan" <[email protected]> wrote:
> dmb says: > > The distinction Pirsig makes is a modification of the old distinction between > mythos and logos. Roughly, that's the difference between myth and logic. For > those who really want to understand what the social level is all about Pirsig > recommends a giant four volume set on world mythology, namely Joseph > Campbell's "The Masks of God". It's awesome. I'm rereading "A History of God-The 4000 year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam" by Karen Armstrong and would also recommend it for insight into the intertwining, misunderstanding, and misuse of both mythos and logos by these religions. She wryly starts her tale with "In the beginning..." this book is not about God per se but about the evolution of man's ideas about gods. In particular, these three religions ideas, but she ties them into both Hindu and Buddhist thought. It's interesting that as Judaism and Christianity mingle with Greek thought both of them adapt mythos to mean all the "God talk and practices" of the pagan's other gods, while logos is the Word of their one true God. "Logos" later evolves, in some branches of Christianity, to mean the transforming of the Word into the flesh through Jesus as Jon recounted in his recent religious rants. Armstrong says," Historical monotheism was not originally mystical.... The prophets (Abraham through Muhammad) had declared war on mythology: their God was active in history and in current political events rather than in the primordial, sacred time of myth. When monotheists turned to mysticism, however, mythology reasserted itself as the chief vehicle of religious experience." Now, 4007 years later, the meaning mythos and logos are so interwoven with the evolution of the monotheistic religions that their use almost guarantees misinterpretation. Dave Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
