{"id":765,"date":"2011-02-04T12:18:52","date_gmt":"2011-02-04T12:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2011\/02\/mythos-logos-the-bible-and-abortion.html"},"modified":"2011-02-04T12:18:52","modified_gmt":"2011-02-04T12:18:52","slug":"mythos-logos-the-bible-and-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/02\/mythos-logos-the-bible-and-abortion.html","title":{"rendered":"Mythos, logos, the Bible, and abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In her book The Battle
\nfor God<\/a><\/i> <\/span> <\/span>Karen Armstrong distinguished between <\/span>mythos<\/i> and <\/span>logos <\/i>in a way that sheds light on both Pagan spirituality and current
\nirrationality on the part of the religious right. The abortion issue is a good
\ncase in point, made particularly relevant today by current efforts to subjugate
\nwomen to arbitrary readings of their scripture and then writing their fantasies into law.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

Mythos<\/i> addresses truths about the deeper meaning contained
\nin things.  Its secular close equivalent is poetry, which takes the reader
\nright up to what can not be said in words, and enables them to make that final
\nstep.  <\/span>Mythos<\/a><\/i> does the same,
\nbut in terms of spiritual truths<\/a>.   <\/span>Logos<\/i> by contrast is what
\nwe call rationality today: instrumental logic of the form “if…then”
\nand not addressing internal value.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Pagan religions have
\nhistorically been expressed primarily through <\/a>mythos<\/a><\/i>.   <\/span>The Roman Pagan Sallustius  observed<\/a> that “a myth has never happened, yet it happens every day.”  <\/span>From Sallustius’s perspective, properly
\nunderstood, myth reveals the deepest of truths about meaning that are capable
\nof being revealed, but it does not record a supposed historical event.  <\/span>As he put it,  <\/span>“one may call [even] the world a myth, in which bodies and
\nthings are visible, but souls and minds hidden; the outer shell veils the inner
\nrealities.” From a mythic perspective logos<\/i><\/span> explores the outer shells, mythos<\/i><\/span> plumbs the inner realities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Biblical religions
\noriginally were a combination of mythos and logos oriented texts with no clear way of determining which was which. In his Confessions<\/i><\/span>,
\nAugustine describes his encounter with the early Church father Ambrose,
\nwriting “I was delighted to hear Ambrose in his sermons to the people saying,
\nas if he were most carefully enunciating a principle of exegesis: ‘The letter
\nkills, the spirit gives life.’ Those texts which, taken literally, seemed to
\ncontain perverse teaching he would expound spiritually, removing the mystical
\nveil.”<\/span><\/p>\n

One
\nproblem with this tradition was the<\/span> many arguments breaking out as to
\nwhich Biblical parts were taken as literally true and which parts were mythic.
\n Over time myth usually lost out to literalism. 
\n<\/span>Beginning with the Reformation mythos was gradually eliminated from a
\ngreat deal of Christian theology because both Catholics and Protestants found
\nthat their side gained when they could argue the text’s literal meaning supported
\ntheir side.  Protestants took this process farthest.  This trend was
\nstrengthened because this way of reading came most easily to lay readers
\nunconnected with long traditions of scholarship. In Religion and the Enlightenment<\/a><\/i> James Bryne observed both Protestants and Catholics were “Stuck with
\nBiblical literalism and doctrinal integralism in which the truth of
\nChristianity as a whole stood or fell with each of its parts.” Because of this
\n“the Christian churches were for the most part incapable of responding
\ncreatively to scientific advances which conflicted with their own orthodoxy.”<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>This means that
\nconservative “Biblical Christians” are reading their Bibles in very modern
\nways, adopting a scientific-style ‘objective’ interpretation, and then when
\nscience does not support their position, shifting over not to mythos, but to a
\nsimple will-to-believe which is utterly irrational because it is closed to any
\nattempt to communicate with and learn from other points of view. They feel they have no choice.  <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Consider their argument
\nthat the fetus is a human life. 
\n<\/span>Theirs is an entirely physical literal argument: the fetus is
\ngenetically human, and if left to develop will be born as a human being.  <\/span>Therefore all that counts is encased
\nwithin a purely physical definition of human.  <\/span>Biblical passages that suggest a person in some way was known
\nto God before their birth are interpreted in the same way, that the person
\nexisted in the womb, period. 
\n<\/span>Ironically the same passages often suggest the person was a spirit
\nunconnected to the fetus, but those passages, being mythic, are ignored. (For
\nexample, Psalm 139:13-16<\/a>) <\/p>\n

That something disturbing emerges from this style of thinking  is demonstrated by their reaction to equally literal readings that do not support their views.  The longest Biblical passage I have found discussing the loss of a fetus
\nexplicitly indicates it is not a human life in the inner moral sense that other human
\nbeings are.  <\/span>The passage is Exodus
\n21:22-25.  <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/span>And if men struggle with each other and strike a woman with
\nchild so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is no further injury, he shall
\nsurely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him; and he shall pay as
\nthe judges decide.  But if there is any further injury, then you shall
\nappoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for
\nhand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.<\/p>\n

At the time I first drew
\nattention to this passage several years ago, my argument was backed up with
\ncomments by religious Jews, who reported the Torah always<\/i> said murder should be
\npunished by death and so its argument that the death of a fetus should be
\npunished by a fine was definitive for Jews that abortion was not<\/i> murder.  In addition, they said the Torah commands
\nabortion when necessary to save the life of the mother.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, in the
\nstrongest Biblical passage dealing with causing the death of a fetus, the
\nliteral reading indicates abortion is not<\/i>
\nmurder. This would seem to be decisive to people who read texts literally.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Fascinatingly to me, these
\narguments had absolutely no impact on conservative and right wing Christian
\ncommentators, nor are they likely to now that I bring them up again. But I pass
\nthis passage along anyway because it illustrates a very disturbing point.<\/p>\n

Spiritual literalism
\ndegenerates into irrationality. <\/p>\n

This is in the very nature of the project.  When certain principles are held as absolutely true, they will of their very nature be interpreted as absolutely true in different ways.  All readings must be interpretations that are better or worse, with the possibility of error always present.  So when a person believes they have the ‘literal’ meaning as God’s word, they exempt themselves from the very human capacity for error.  As a consequence they must reject evidence they error by ignoring ‘literal’ passages that contradict their ‘literal’ interpretation.<\/p>\n

By reading sacred texts in a purely logocentric way they ultimately trap themselves and cut themselves off from all spiritual
\ninsight because as Sallustius and Augustine and Ambrose all recognized, they cannot be read that way wisely.  <\/span>When the ‘literalists’ interpretations are contradicted by historical evidence or scientific
\ndiscoveries, because they have rejected myth they have no way <\/i>to incorporate new knowledge into their spiritual
\nunderstanding, and so new knowledge must be rejected.  <\/span>The earth <\/span>must<\/i> be 6000 years old or
\nthere is no truth in their Bible. 
\n<\/span>Jesus <\/span>had<\/i> to be around dinosaurs or there is no truth in the Bible.  <\/span>And so on, absurdity after absurdity. <\/span> Mythos<\/i> is unavailable to them and <\/span>logos <\/i>contradicts them so
\nall that is left is the irrational commitment, a will-to-believe regardless of
\nthe evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n

When such people do change their views – and this happens – it is because their<\/span> hearts <\/i>rebel at the implications of their doctrine.  This is to their credit.  But for many, when doctrine wars with their heart, doctrine wins.  I do not know how to get to such hearts, though if they engage in interfaith work, that can happen.  But most close themselves off from this. The result is a religion of irrationality.  As we see about ourselves, it easily spills into irrationality elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because most Americans are
\nmore reasonable than this, it is in our interest as well as theirs for us to
\nchallenge the religious right at every juncture, throw their scriptures in
\ntheir faces, and make as clear as possible that the will-to-believe is the
\nultimate spiritual pride: that because I believe it, I speak for God. There is
\nno greater pride.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In her book The Battle for God  Karen Armstrong distinguished between mythos and logos in a way that sheds light on both Pagan spirituality and current irrationality on the part of the religious right. The abortion issue is a good case in point, made particularly relevant today by current efforts to subjugate women to arbitrary readings…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pagan-spirituality","category-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nMythos, logos, the Bible, and abortion - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/02\/mythos-logos-the-bible-and-abortion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mythos, logos, the Bible, and abortion - A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In her book The Battle for God  Karen Armstrong distinguished between mythos and logos in a way that sheds light on both Pagan spirituality and current irrationality on the part of the religious right. 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