On Medium: The Mythic Jesus and the Fragmentation of Shamanism
This article critiques the Jesus mythicist's comparison of Jesus with pagan dying-and-rising gods, and explores the neo-shamanic or existential aspect of Christianity.
That's a novel theory you have there. Even though shamanism is extinct in most societies, the shamanic 'type' persists even in the most secular of cultures. The pagan god-man myths, which resemble Christianity so closely, may be echos of an older shamanic tradition. So, even if Jesus were historical, he may have been a shamanic type (or a prophet in the context of Judaism). The film adaption of Kazantzakis' Last Temptation portrays Jesus this way: a neurotic, middle-aged Jewish bachelor who suffers from hallucinations & is too idealistic to function in society (maybe they should have cast Woody Allan, or at least allowed him to co-direct).
Indeed, shamanic imagery could have influenced Christianity even if there were a historical Jesus. One question that interests me is the broader one of how paleolithic religious practices evolved into the more organized kinds in large societies. I hardly think thousands of years of magic, animism, and shamanism were just forgotten when people started to live around farms.
I wonder if Kazantzakis's book was influenced by the chapter in Hans Jonas's The Gnostic Religion, which points to the existential (social outsider) aspects of Gnosticism.
That's a novel theory you have there. Even though shamanism is extinct in most societies, the shamanic 'type' persists even in the most secular of cultures. The pagan god-man myths, which resemble Christianity so closely, may be echos of an older shamanic tradition. So, even if Jesus were historical, he may have been a shamanic type (or a prophet in the context of Judaism). The film adaption of Kazantzakis' Last Temptation portrays Jesus this way: a neurotic, middle-aged Jewish bachelor who suffers from hallucinations & is too idealistic to function in society (maybe they should have cast Woody Allan, or at least allowed him to co-direct).
ReplyDeleteIndeed, shamanic imagery could have influenced Christianity even if there were a historical Jesus. One question that interests me is the broader one of how paleolithic religious practices evolved into the more organized kinds in large societies. I hardly think thousands of years of magic, animism, and shamanism were just forgotten when people started to live around farms.
DeleteI wonder if Kazantzakis's book was influenced by the chapter in Hans Jonas's The Gnostic Religion, which points to the existential (social outsider) aspects of Gnosticism.