Christianity as creative myth

in the books for anyone to read. The aim of this lecture is to describe a mythology which is significant whichever of these three is adopted; a mythology that presents to mankind a vision of their significance and value which can appeal to human emotions and move the human will as no merely intellectual thinking or scientific knowledge can do, but as painting, music and poetry have done for many centuries.

The story of Jesus is that of a boy who was born in exceptional and somewhat mysterious circumstances and about whose boyhood very little has been written except in St. Luke’s gospel that he ‘grew big and strong. He was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was with him.’ At the age of twelve, as he spoke with the elders in the Temple at Jerusalem, ‘all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers’, and he was already aware of a life mission which he called ‘my Father’s business’. At the age of thirty he was baptised in Jordan by John the Baptist who ‘saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove’ and a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased’. We may associate this with the words in the second psalm, which are repeated in the Acts of the Apostles (13.33) and in the Epistle to the Hebrews (1.5) as referring to Jesus, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee’. All four gospels describe how Jesus travelled throughout Israel for three years with his disciples, teaching, and performing miracles, until finally at the age of thirty-three the chief priests and elders had him crucified. And after three days he resurrected from the dead and ascended into heaven.

To anyone acquainted with the symbolism of the mysteries and of mythology much of this story may suggest strong analogies, as for example the numbers thirty and thirty-three as relating to the age of Jesus at Jordan and at Golgotha. It appears that the story is about an exceptional man who was preparing himself or being prepared for thirty years for a mission which it was his providential duty to fulfil, which he described as seeking the will of his Father who sent him (St. John 5.30). The nature of this mission was clearly the attainment of universal or divine consciousness, which we may call Christ-consciousness, and to live, work for three years, and die, continuously in the inspiration of this consciousness. Such was the intensity and universality of

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