The New Mythology of John Cowper Powys

have existed in human thought from early times and all three are equally valid now.

The attitude of the First Revelation is common to most of the pre-Christian religions. It is that the world is an organic Unity which is in continuous development, in which there are not only beings inferior to man, but whole hierarchies of beings superior to him. Such a view is a-centric. There are gods, but no single God, except the Absolute Whole.

The second Revelation is radically opposed to this. It is that there is a centre to the universe, which is the supreme meaning, and a hierarchy of values which all receive their validity from this centre. Christianity is the central expression of this Revelation. It affirms that the spirit of the Whole incarnated in a Man, who was thus both Man and God. Man is central in the Universe and of the whole race of mankind One Man is the centre. All values derive from the Person of Jesus Christ. The individual human being has indeed a meaning in himself, but he has this only in relation to the centre; as St. Paul said, ‘Not I, but Christ in me’.

The essence of the Third Revelation is that there are many centres, each being of ultimate value in itself. The individual human being has his value in himself and does not recognise any moral or spiritual authority imposed on him from outside himself. He himself is the sole arbiter of what he accepts or does not accept; he is the one who values and decides.

Just as Christianity appeared to its believers to have superseded the pre-Christian religions, which they regarded as pagan, so to many exponents of the Third Revelation it appears to have superseded Christianity—and indeed all religions. But the imagery of the circle which I have used illustrates that no one of these Three Revelations should be considered as the ultimate truth, but that all three together with all their mutual contradictions make up one Triune Revelation. For the circle is not only a circumference but also and necessarily a centre and a radius. Each is a radically different approach to the notion of a circle, but all three are equally valid and necessary.

The circumference typifies the First Revelation, since it is the boundary within which the whole is contained. The Second Revelation corresponds to the centre. But we are now concerned

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