Religion and Its Metaphors 

Half the people in the world think that the metaphors of their religion… are facts. Another half contends that they are not facts at all. As a result, we have people who consider themselves believers because they accept metaphors as facts, and we have others who classify themselves as atheists because they think religious metaphors are lies.   

Joseph Campbell                                                                                                                                 Cited in Mystical Hours

Wayne Teasdale offers this background information to Campbell’s quote in these words:

“As we can see in this quote from Thou Art Thou, the mythologist Joseph Campbell understood that many of people’s arguments over religion, particularly Christian religion, stem from the interpretation of religious scripture. The powerful metaphors meant to describe moral and mystical experience are often interpreted literally, both by atheists and fundamentalists. Interpretation is always up to the individual, but taking the beautiful language of the scriptures to reveal Christ’s mystical experience metaphorically gives us greater personal insight into the spiritual journey.”

Over the decades of ministry, and throughout every congregation I served, this classic battle would become one of the clashes that had to be resolved… or better yet, seen through for what it is: a tragic case of miseducation, and a lack of any insightful guidance from their previous, often childhood clergy! 

Being fiercely attached to a more militant point of view-from both the atheists and from the more conservative believers-only resulted in bitter engagements that served no good purpose, and certainly did not foster or forward greater tolerance, appreciation, or understanding! While I did not have to contend with conservative fundamentalists, I did have my share of liberal atheists or agnostics who, to my comprehension, were stuck on believing only what was literal or able to be scientifically proven. In that way, they could be considered to be advocates for cynical scientism.  

Strangely, they would accept the metaphors found in the arts, music, literature as instructive and insightful; but often I would find that there was a blind response-triggered from some coercive experience in religious education or moral obedience that made them fiery, furious and intolerant! 

They would mercilessly mock the headlines that more conservative religious thinkers would create, and I would agree with them that this outlook was neither truly Biblical, nor did it serve the deeper answers to the human condition; our human condition that was filled with nuance, contradictions, metaphor, and mystery… 

Just as Campbell is well known by saying, “the fastest way to the truth is through a story”, so too, the quickest way to finding one’s answers is not through acidic criticism, but through a willingness to suspend judgment; That suspension has to be prefaced by the release of the wounds of your past that were inflicted through ignorance, and the desire for control. 

Regardless of whether you chose Christianity as your path, or any of the great timeless teachings and religious expressions, you need to come to your own answers through study, testing, exploration, spiritual disciplines and community affirmation. 

Truth, in any healing or compassionate way, is rarely found by way of argument. It arrives in and through those sacred times, and it will come to us mystically by becoming open to the possibilities of receiving your answers from inside/out; from an openness to wonder and   mystery that is the essence of the spiritual life.