The inner reaches of outer space : metaphor as myth and as religion

by Joseph Campbell

Paperback, 1986

Publication

Imprint: New York : A. van der Marck Editions, c1986. Responsibility: Joseph Campbell. OCLC Number: 13008516. Physical: Text : 1 volume : 155 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm. Features: Includes bibliography.

Call number

Myth / Campb

Barcode

BK-01483

ISBN

0912383097 / 9780912383095

Original publication date

1986

CSS Library Notes

Description: Developed from a memorable series of lectures delivered in San Francisco, which included a legendary symposium at the Palace of Fine Arts with astronaut Rusty Schweickart, Joseph Campbell's last book explores the space age. Campbell posits that the newly discovered laws of outer space are actually at work within human beings as well and that a new mythology is implicit in this realization. He examines the new mythology and other questions in these essays which he described as "a broadly shared spiritual adventure."--Publisher description.

Table of Contents: Prologue : Myth and the body --
ch. 1. Cosmology and the mythic imagination --
ch. 2. Metaphor as myth and as religion --
1. The problem --
2. Metaphor as fact and fact as metaphor --
3. Metaphors of psychological transformation --
4. Threshold figures --
5. The metaphorical journey --
6. Metaphorical identification --
7. The net of gems --
ch. 3. The way of art --
Notes --
Acknowledgments.

FY1989 /

Physical description

155 p.; 25 cm

Description

Developed from a memorable series of lectures delivered in San Francisco, which included a legendary symposium at the Palace of Fine Arts with astronaut Rusty Schweickart, Joseph Campbell's last book explores the space age. Campbell posits that the newly discovered laws of outer space are actually at work within human beings as well and that a new mythology is implicit in this realization. He examines the new mythology and other questions in these essays which he described as "a broadly shared spiritual adventure."

Language

Original language

English

User reviews

LibraryThing member drbubbles
Mostly a mixture of unfalsifiable woo, a truly atrocious attempt at radical-prehistory-by-insinuation (the evidence adduced is cherry-picked and decontextualized, making for a weak argument that is so reductionistic as to be devoid of any explanatory power whatsoever even were he right in his
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facts), and a misguided appropriation of relativity-theory; but the first and second chapters have a few redeeming aspects (solid critique of mainstream-religious apologetics, interesting analysis of the basic structure of worldwide religious history).
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LibraryThing member hailelib
A short summation of Campbell's thoughts toward's the end of his life on his long study of comparative mythology. Really an extended essay. Quote : 'Religious intolerance is blasphemy' page 96

Rating

½ (60 ratings; 3.9)
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