The Flight Of The Wild Gander

The author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces explores the origins of myth from the Grimm fairy tales to Native American legends, explaining in a collection of essays how the symbolic content of myth is linked to universal human experience and how myths and experiences change over time.

Famed mythologist Joseph Campbell explores the form, function, and origin of myths

This Skeleton Key Study Guide to Joseph Campbell's The Flight of the Wild Gander lets you read Campbell alongside a Campbell expert, focusing on the origins of myth and the enduring power of metaphor and symbols. In this helpful guide, you'll find chapter summaries, notable quotes, reading suggestions, essay and discussion topics, and prompts for creative projects. The Joseph Campbell Foundation's Skeleton Key Study Guides offer entryways into the work of Joseph Campbell for teachers, students, and myth-minded readers. Written by a contemporary expert in myth, this guide will help you discover the joy of Campbell's insights so you can apply them to your life.

This collection, first published in 1992, offers critical-interpretive essays on various aspects of the work of Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), one of a very few international experts on myth. Joseph Campbell examines myths and mythologies from a comparative point of view, and he stresses those similarities among myths the world over as they suggest an existing, transcendent unity of all humankind. His interpretations foster an openness, even a generous appreciation of, all myths; and he attempts to generate a broad, sympathetic understanding of the role of these 'stories' in human history, in our present-day lives, and in the possibilities of our future.

Natural theology, in the view of many, is in crisis. In this long-awaited book, Alister McGrath sets out a new vision for natural theology, re-establishing its legitimacy and utility. A timely and innovative resource on natural theology: the exploration of knowledge of God as it is observed through nature Written by internationally regarded theologian and author of numerous bestselling books, Alister McGrath Develops an intellectually rigorous vision of natural theology as a point of convergence between the Christian faith, the arts and literature, and the natural sciences, opening up important possibilities for dialogue and cross-fertilization Treats natural theology as a cultural phenomenon, broader than Christianity itself yet always possessing a distinctively Christian embodiment Explores topics including beauty, goodness, truth, and the theological imagination; how investigating nature gives rise to both theological and scientific theories; the idea of a distinctively Christian approach to nature; and how natural theology can function as a bridge between Christianity and other faiths

Each generation asks in its own way, "What does it mean to be human?" In True Myth, James Menzies addresses this question by exploring myth and religion in the thinking of mythologist Joseph Campbell and Oxford don C. S. Lewis. Joseph Campbell understood Christianity as comprised of mythical themes similar to those in other religious and secular myths. Admitting that certain portions of the biblical record are historical, he taught the theological and miraculous aspects as symbolic, as stories in which the reader discovers what it means to be human today. C. S. Lewis defined Christianity, and being truly human, as a relationship between the personal Creator and his creation mediated through faith in his son, Jesus Christ. In contrast to Campbell, Lewis took the theological and miraculous literally. Although Lewis understood how one could see symbolism and lessons for life in miraculous events, he believed they were more than symbolic and indeed took place in human history. Not only does Menzies consider the ways Campbell and Lewis utilize myth in answering the question for their generation, but he also probes the influence and presence of myth in philosophy, media, ethics, history, literature, art, music, and religion in a contemporary context, thus helping readers consider answers for their own age.

An important addition to understanding natural selection, these essays redefine wealth and identify a sustainable spirituality using the perspectives of scientific research and historical wisdom.