(This is a letter I sent to a member
of a church where I preached recently. The conversation began with a
letter to me from the member, politely but firmly objecting to my
statement that the miracle stories in the New Testament were
mythological. This is the second round of our correspondence.)
Thanks for the letter - again, I am enjoying this exchange with you.
In your last letter, you offered examples of extraordinary events
experienced by people today. These suggest for you a "third way"
between taking all of the Bible literally and rejecting all the
miracles described in the scriptures. What is the rubric for choosing
which fanciful stories might be true and which ones should not be taken
literally? Doesn't this set up a standard of veracity that applies to
the Christian scriptures but not to the rest of experience?
I don't suggest that extraordinary events are impossible. On the
contrary, I myself have experienced some unexplained, remarkable things
that would fit nicely in your list of such reports. I view these
events not as supernatural miracles but rather as events that are as
yet lacking in explanation. These events don't prove, nor do they even
suggest, that God acts supernaturally nor do they suggest that we
should look at the biblical miracle stories as something other than
myths. They simply reveal that not everything that we experience has
been explained yet by science and reason.
If there is such a thing as a myth at all, the miracle stories in the
Bible fit the definition. For one thing, many of the stories have
literary functions in the biblical narratives that strongly suggest
their fictional nature. For instance, there is the story of the
Gerasene man from whom Jesus cast out a "legion" of demons. The word
"legion" refers to the Roman occupation army. The story says that the
demons were driven into a herd of pigs who then ran over a cliff to
their deaths. Jews don't eat pork, so it's clear that the pigs were
being raised to feed the Romans. The story isn't about a miracle that
proves Jesus' divinity. The story is about the great social issue of
Jesus’ time and place, which was how the Jewish people should deal with
the foreign military occupation of their country. If we can find a
satisfying explanation for the story which has nothing to do with its
factuality, why would we bother to read it literally? Why would we
need to suspend our good common sense about what is real and what is
not, since the story has its own power and value in any case?
The story of Jesus walking on water fits the commonly held definition
of a myth because it is factually implausible and because it has value
apart from its historical veracity. In it I find a beautiful
illustration of finding faith in turbulent circumstances, and also a
depth-psychological image of mastery of the “sea” of the unconscious
realm of our lives. The story corresponds remarkably to imagery very
commonly reported in night-time dreams. In any case, if he indeed
walked on water, there would be no reason to account for it
supernaturally. It would be no more or less of a miracle than the
shimmer of hummingbird feathers.
Abandoning concern about the factuality of fanciful Bible stories needs
to be accompanied by whetting interest in the power of biblical
mythology. Myths can have life-changing impact on people. For me, the
real “miracle” in Christianity is how its mythical stories have
transformed the lives of millions of people over the centuries. These
stories don’t lose any of their impact at all by being understood as
fictions. On the contrary, by liberating ourselves from concern about
whether they really happened or not, we can focus on what really
matters about the stories: the ways they hold up mirrors to our own
spiritual journeys.
The culture that prevailed in the New Testament era had little interest
in the kind of fact-checking and scientific analysis that prevails
today. Outside the Christian community, as well as within it, stories
abounded of paranormal events, resurrections, miraculous healings, and
the like. Such reports were given less skeptical scrutiny than they'd
get today, so I think it stands to reason that most if not all these
stories were confabulated. We care much more today about historical
veracity than people did in that era. Libraries in the first century
didn’t have “fiction” sections separated from “non-fiction”. All the
more reason to begin with the assumption that the miracle stories are
mythical.
I think this topic is an important one because it has such profound
consequences for the future of the Christian tradition which both you
and I treasure. Over the last few centuries, science and reason have
shrunk into a little corner the realm once attributed to the
supernatural. What used to be acts of a God outside of nature are now
mostly understood as acts of nature itself. It is hundreds of years
past time for Christians to recognize that God and nature are one, and
that the more we learn about nature, the more we know of God. Unless
we do so, the faith will get stuck in a smaller and smaller corner.
Already, nearly ¼ of the young adults in this country have abandoned
organized religion altogether – a number that keeps growing. They see
a disconnection between supernatural Christian doctrines and the
reality of the world around them. So I believe it is time for straight
talk about our faith, especially with young people. It is time to keep
the heart of the religion and drop the dogma that obscures it. That
way, we can pass along the essence of Christianity which you and I
cherish.
Good to be in conversation with you!
Jim