Mythic Storytelling For Christians
Why Fantasy Is Important
I believe that for too long, the Christian church has shoved its head in the sand, ignoring blatant, in your face words within the Bible that is crystal clear when it comes to the supernatural. By extension, when fantasy came booming back into the light, too many people in the 80’s turned a critical eye, denouncing it as blasphemy and evil. Mythology had become a bad word for the church. We forgot that this very term has major theological ties.
Let’s start here. What IS this tie “myth” has to the Bible? In its most basic understanding, “myth” or “mythos” categorizes a story that incorporates the gods, the supernatural in its writing. By this very definition, the Bible is mythic. In Michael Heiser’s original manuscript that would become a major academic book, “The Unseen Realm,” he had titled it, “The Myth That Is True.” He of course, borrowed this line from C.S. Lewis.
I remember a time growing up where I discovered a treasure trove of fantasy authors that weren’t for kids. I immersed myself in their worlds and marveled at the beauty of the world building. I often say Terry Brooks introduced me to that magical world of fantasy and mystery. It was an escape from a tormented mind that had led me down a dark path. These stories, filled with heroic deeds, good vs evil, doing what is right despite everything, was always the major theme within fantasy. I could write something on the decay of morality in today’s fantasy but won’t here. But growing up, this was my escape and a lifeline to sanity in a world of dark and morbid hatred that consumed me endlessly.
I quite honestly think God, in His wisdom, crossed my path with these authors to sustain my mind from going off the deep end during this time in my life. I wanted nothing to do with God or church. I was furious with Him, at what I saw as my lot in life, even if that was extremely obscured. I didn’t see the truth till years later. But in this dark time, fantasy and imagination was a buffer to what could have led to suicide.
Perhaps it’s this very understanding that lends its voice to me wanting others to understand some things, chiefly, that mythology is NOT bad!
I wonder how many people know that the Bible is filled with outside source material that is mythic. The authors readily knew and read these stories and sometimes, if what was said made good sense, placed it in their writings at points. Other times, they would do a polemic, a deliberate counter attack on pagan religious text. They would put that text in the Bible but rearrange it, like placing Yahweh in the place of Baal as the son of man who is seen as the rider in the clouds. This is straight out of the pagan religious writings contained in “The Baal Cycle.”
Note also, in the New Testament, “Son of Man” and “clouds” is something Jesus Himself says of Himself to the priests. They tear their clothes screaming he blasphemes. Why? Because they know this text. They know it very well. It’s an old testament polemic that reverses the “son of man” reference to Baal. Jesus quotes this in reference to Himself. He’s quoting a mythical text, reversed in the old testament, to himself!
The Bible is filled with this stuff over and over. You won’t get many pastors talking about this but if you research academics whose careers are built on ancient old testament text, you will find it. You’ll find parallels that lift mythic texts and pagan laws, incorporating it into the author’s writing.
Now, there will be some people who will scream, “blasphemy! You’re a heretic!”
To these people, I will simply ask, what has changed? Did the gospel change? Did this in any way devalue God’s power or control or remotely made Him someone He is not? No.
But the text itself is plain to see and the evidence is overwhelming. And it begs the question to be asked. How do you define inspiration of scripture?
I’m going to offend you some more right now. If you define it as God giving the author an audible, dictation of every word to write, you’re going to have a major problem with the text because IT will discredit you.
Case in point 1. The Book of Psalms. It was edited. How do we know? Because it’s so blatantly obvious. You get a group of poems here and it says, here ends david’s work or something like that. The very next verse, we get MORE. And sometimes, they’re not even David’s poems! It says so!
Here’s a good one. In the book of Exodus, when Moses is receiving the laws from God, notice a subtle difference. It will, in a couple instances, change from past to present tense and in one case at least, be very blatant in how it talks about livestock and crops as in present tense. At the time of Moses, they weren’t settled. These verses assume the reader is settled in the land. Also, Moses is dead at that point. So it’s very obvious that someone edited the text.
In fact, what nobody will talk about is that a major portion of the Old Testament has no real known authorship. Nobody knows who wrote a lot of this stuff. Did the prophet Samuel write his own autobiography from the grave? Who wrote Chronicles? We scream blasphemy if someone dares to challenge our view of inspiration without knowing that these things exist in plain sight and atheists LOVE to throw this at you. Does this discredit the Bible? Of course not because it’s not what the Bible is. It’s not meant to be all inclusive, scientific, word for word, exhaustive in detailed retelling. It’s not even deeply historical, though we do get a lot of this. If you think any of these things are core to biblical inspiration, you’re going to find yourself flying off a cliff in despair.
What is core to the Bible is simple. It’s God’s collective love letter to humanity. It’s a collection of poems, histories, parables, polemics against pagan gods, but ultimately, it’s a mythic story that is true. It’s God coming into human history and being part of that story, teaching us that we’re not alone. He’s the ultimate source of joy and fulfillment. He gives us countless ways of seeing this. In the end, the human story is not truly materialistic. The narrative is deeply supernatural. It is what Eden was and will be again. A convergence of two worlds, the joining of spirit and flesh. THAT is what we are missing and longing for. It’s the human condition, a separation as punishment, no longer able to walk with God as Adam had. But one day, we will see it come again. The New Testament is the fulfillment in Jesus but not the end. It’s the mythic backdrop of toppling the dynasties of the powers Paul speaks of in Ephesians 6, in Deuteronomy, and many other places, the worldview of Daniel where we get a glimpse of the angel fighting the Prince of Persia as the reason he was delayed in God’s answer to Daniel. We have the gospel but completely miss major stopping points Jesus makes and WHY.
When He asks Peter if he knew who He was, remember his response? On this rock, I’ll build my church. They are literally standing on a GIANT ROCK. And where is this? At a very significant place within the bible and history. It’s at the mountain of Bishon, overlooking the temple of Pan. It’s also where in every text outside the bible describes the gates of hell, the book of Enoch explains is the place the spirits descend in Genesis 6, it’s the defeat of the giant King Gog and the horrendous evil in that place. This is also where Jacob has the vison of angels coming and going, where he fights the angel of the Lord. This place has deep biblical history. When Jesus ascends for the transfiguration, it’s in the same vicinity. He hasn’t gone very far. It’s the same mountain, same region. What happens? 2 weeks later, he goes to Jerusalem and is killed.
Sources outside the Bible say the same thing throughout history. It was known throughout the known world as the Gates of Hades or the Netherworld. And Jesus explicitly says, the church will be built here and the gates of hell will not prevail. The original word, scholars say, can easily be translated “withstand.” In this view, the church is the one giving the beating. He is deliberately picking a fight.
That worldview is biblical. Stop denying it.
And now, we want to throw most of the supernatural parts of the Bible out. We want to view the Bible as a guide book, not what it actually is. It’s a love letter by God, providentially moving in many different lives to put together a book He authored by the directing of thousands of people. Note I said thousands because this book was EDITED. It had to be. You cannot get around that fact unless you want to live under a rock and deny what’s in front of you.
Inspiration is of God. He authored it but did so by the hands of those He chose before they were even born. (Jeremiah 1 for example). Inspiration doesn’t mean dictation or downloading of information. You get this a few times but the majority of the Bible is NOT dictated. God used people he providentially picked and led every step of the way. But He did NOT dictate the words. You can see this easily in how the authors write. They use their own ideas, borrow some stuff from pagan neighbors to make things more understandable, but ultimately, led by the Spirit of God. This means, you’re going to get a worldview that is not modern. It does not conform to modern science, doesn’t have our cultural niceties, has no understanding whatsoever of the world we live in today. It’s written in a time where the gods rule (Deut 32...just read the entire book, psalm 82, 89, Eph 6:10-18). If you’re uncomfortable with that term, use Elohim or spirits. They hijacked the original plan and coerced human nations to worship them. How hard is that to even believe? That’s the basics. This is where you get the confrontation in Egypt, the plagues that coincide with the gods of Egypt, The Prince of Persia, etc. You get it, right?
The Bible has a deep supernatural backdrop that is mythic in nature. And nowhere does any author say this is a metaphor. If you want to quote Paul saying they’re just idols, you may want to skip the next verses after. Or for that matter, you’d better skip the entire book of Deuteronomy. You’re going to have a major headache explaining that away.
So, why am I bringing this up?
Because I’m sick of Christians saying fantasy is bad. I’m sick of the unintelligent arguments in the church. I’m sick to death of the devaluing of scripture and stripping the supernatural out of it! You don’t have that right!
At this point, there is more value in fantasy than in many western churches who preach tolerance, not the gospel. At least in good fantasy, the theme is good vs evil. In these churches, the evil is good.
Louis Markos, a professor of English at Houston Baptist University, wrote “The Witch’s conception of what Narnia should be like is similar to what Sauron desires for Middle-earth (and what Satan desires for our own world) : a barren landscape devoid of life peopled by joyless automatons who neither laugh nor take pleasure in anything. It is Satan, not Christ who is the cosmic killjoy.”
― Louis Markos, On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis
“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries. (Robert Jastrow, astronomer)”
― Louis Markos, Apologetics for the Twenty-First Century
“Lewis closes his book, The Abolition of Man, with these prophetic words: “You cannot go on ‘explaining away’ for ever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. . . . If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To see through all things is the same as not to see.”“
― Louis A. Markos, A to Z with C. S. Lewis
“We are half-hearted creatures,” writes Lewis, “fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” Heaven promises a purification, not a mortification, of our deepest desires.”
― Louis A. Markos, A to Z with C. S. Lewis
“Lewis was unique in the academia of his day for championing (along with his good friend, J.R.R. Tolkien) children’s literature and fantasy novels as serious genres deserving serious consideration.”
― Louis A. Markos
For C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, they owed a great debt to an 18th century pastor, George MacDonald. Lewis says many times that anything he’s ever written is because of George MacDonald. In his “The Great Divorce,” he even includes MacDonald as the one who leads his fictional character on a journey.
Through George MacDonald’s life, he wrote and spoke many sermons, writing essays on the spiritual journey. But what he’s known for most is his defense for fantasy. He argued that it’s a vital way for the human imagination to grasp spiritual and emotional truths that realism alone doesn’t convey. He believed that by removing life’s problems to a fantastical setting, stories could make their causes and solutions clearer, offering increased understanding and principles for living. For MacDonald, good fantasy wasn’t just for children; it was a profound tool for adults to explore complex themes, reveal truths about human nature, and connect with spiritual realities.
This, I’ve found, is at the heart of writing fantasy. It’s a vehicle of exploring spiritual themes, morals, lessons, things that are convoluted and hard to see in the real world. Strip that away and place it in a parable as Jesus often does. Ask yourself why did Jesus speak so often in this way? Most times you hear Jesus speak, this is the way he explains things, in stories.
However, within this concept, He speaks in mythic storytelling, not materialistic. We want to ignore that fact and assign fantasy to the work of the devil. The problem is, at the very heart of fantasy is a story written in the exact same way the Bible is written, many times in mythic prose, never denying the supernatural is real.
That, my friend, is why fantasy is important for today’s world of gnostic people. It opens the mind to ask the hard questions and the possibility of that other world.