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

by Joseph Campbell

Book, 1985

Status

Available

Call number

ML

Call number

ML

Publication

New York : A. van der Marck Editions, c1985.

Original publication date

1986

Physical description

155 p.; 25 cm

Local notes

In these pages, beloved mythologist Joseph Campbell explores the Space Age. He posits that the newly discovered laws of outer space are actually within us as well, and that a new mythology is implicit in that realization. But what is this new mythology? How can we recognize it? Campbell explores these questions in the concluding essay, “The Way of Art,” in which he demonstrates that metaphor is the language of art and argues that within the psyches of today’s artists are the seeds of tomorrow’s mythologies.

Campbell writes in his introduction: “My desire and great pleasure in the preparation of this little volume has been as rendering a return gift to the Graces for the transforming insights of these recent years, which...we have been testing out in a broadly shared spiritual adventure.”

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
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