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Guest
That is true. There are similarities expressed in religious myths. Pope Benedict XVI spends some time on a similar observation about pagan myths of bread and resurrection in his book “Jesus of Nazareth.” The full book is well worth a read. This sums up the observation about myths…
“Before there can be bread, the seed—the grain of wheat—first has to be placed in the earth, it has to ‘die,’ and then the new ear can grow out of this death…This is why the world’s religions used bread as the basis for myths of death and resurrection of the godhead, in which man expressed his hope for life out of death…C.S. Lewis, having read a twelve-volume work about these myths came to the conclusion that this Jesus…was just ‘another corn divinity, a corn king who lays down his life for the life of the world.’ One day he overheard a firm atheist remarking to a colleague that the evidence for the historicity of the Gospels was actually surprisingly good. The atheist paused thoughtfully and said: ‘About the dying God. Rum thing. It almost looks as if it really happened once.’… Yes, it really did happen. Jesus is no myth. He is a man of flesh and blood and he stands as a fully real part of history… He died and he is risen. It is as if the mysterious Passion contained in bread had waited for him, had stretched out its arms toward him; it is as if the myths had waited for him, because in him what they long for come to pass.”(Pg. 271-272)
(Emphasis added)
(And might I also add that all the places with “…” omitted beautiful descriptions and details. So get the book! It is my favorite!)
In a similar way, there are other longings of the human heart expressed in myths. Look at ours today! For example…Superheroes. Superman, Thor. God-like figures who protect the earth and love one who, in our eyes, seem beneath notice. Most movies that we love have elements of the longing in our hearts for God. Forgiven for mistakes, Cinderella stories, triumph over darkness, unfailing love, tragedies.
I always do that with (or to) my kids. After we watch a movie: what was the most important point of that movie that made it worth watching? How is that like man’s quest for God, and God’s coming to meet us? What led to that fulfilled feeling at the end (of a great movie) and how does it express the longing of the human heart for the one who made us?
It is an excellent thought experiment. Kids pick it right up.
Optimus Prime: his justice and morality cause him to risk his life to protect humans. The humans betray him utterly and his friends are destroyed and killed and exiled. And yet he comes back and saves the humans!
And if the music and the impact of the scenes of his arrival on earth in the first movie aren’t a shadow of what we should feel when we consider the moment God entered time and space to walk amid humans, I don’t know what is!
(And yes, o ye analytical ones. You can tear that analogy to shreds because no analogy or metaphor is perfect! Jesus is the only perfect revelation of God!)
