Demythologizing The Modern

Demythologizing The Modern August 17, 2020

The world relies on myths. In fact, most of popular history is mythic. The power of myth in the modern world is no more or less than that of the ancient world. Shakespeare’s account of the Battle of Agincourt from Henry V is better known than the accounts given of it by people who were present. We should not be surprised by this. What happens in demythologizing our myths?

Story And Events

The story is more important than the event. The adage that history is told by the victors is true. But the victors are not the authors of the events. They are the authors of the story.  The first story is often the one remembered no matter how accurate that story may be.

The Battle of Bunker Hill actually took place on Breed’s Hill. Most high school history students know this fact. But it does not change the name of the battle. Why? Because of the heroic part of the story. The Continentals did not have sufficient ammunition to defend the position. The commander gave the order. “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes!”

There is no way to determine of the order was truly given. It may have been a later addition by a journalist who knew how to tell a gripping story. But if the order was given that day does it really matter where it was given?

Demythologizing A World Changing Event

I asked someone, an educated person, if they knew who Grigory Rasputin was. They never heard of him. I wasn’t surprised. The West has the popular belief that the Russian Revolution was done by  Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik party. But Lenin did not contribute as much to the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II as Grigory Rasputin did.

Rasputin is one of those historical figures who became shrouded in myth almost immediately after his death. He was called “the mad monk” even though he was not a monk. He merely wore the trappings of a holy man of the Orthodox Church. The Tsarina Alexandra believed Rasputin was able to heal her son Alexie of hemophilia. Some have argued that it was due to hypnosis. It is more likely that Alexie improved when Rasputin advised the royal family not to use the treatments which the doctors prescribed. Aspirin was one of those drugs. It was not known at the time that it acted as a blood thinner.

Rasputin’s reputation as a glutton and womanizer was probably well-earned. The newly liberated Russian press spread rumors about him and his connections to noble women. The circumstances of his death were first recorded by a nobleman who conspired to kill him. They were also lies. Rasputin had been poisoned, shot, and finally thrown into a freezing river in late December 1916. The autopsy showed water in his lungs. So he probably drowned before freezing to death. The account is salted with references to evil demons causing Rasputin to overcome the other attempts on him that night.

Another Myth Took His Place

Such a person should be remembered in history for his role in deluding the royal family. In 1917, the Tsar abdicated. He had lost all confidence of the Russian Army and Nobility. This happened in March seven months before Lenin’s October Revolution. Another myth took his place.

Stories ultimately do not overcome the facts. The events are there. We simply retell them into new stories. The myth of the great uprising of the October Revolution has been more accurately described as a coup in Petrograd. But it lead to a Civil War where the Red Army overcame the Whites.

Demythologizing Demythologizing

Attempts to demythologize are really misnamed. The belief that one can remove the heroic or miraculous from some stories to get at the facts merely comes down to retelling the story. Thomas Jefferson was conscious of this when he removed the miracle stories from the Gospels to publish his Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. He knew he was retelling the narrative to fit modernist beliefs. Unfortunately, he managed to remove any reason to follow the morals of Jesus of Nazareth. He also managed to rob the life of Jesus of any meaning.

The writers of the gospels including the ones that did not make it into the canon depict Jesus as possessing spiritual authority to teach what he says. The Gospel of Thomas ends with Jesus promising to make Mary Magdalene male so that she could inherit eternal life. Jesus is not a teacher of good morals or enlightenment values.

The Existence of Jesus

The question of whether Jesus existed is the result of realizing modern scholars merely retell the story of Jesus. They may argue that their retelling his that of the historical Jesus rather than the “Christ of faith.” Can we prove Jesus was or was not an invented figure? If he is an invented person, he is the most influential one who never lived. Questioning his existence becomes an exercise in setting standards that no historical figure of ancient times is expected to fulfill. Is such a figure subject to our assumptions?

The myth that Isaac Newton discovered gravity by having an apple fall on his head is popular. It is not true. Newton explained gravity in a way that enabled humans to do many seemingly impossible things. That is true. But Albert Einstein explained gravity better than Newton did. Demythologizing Newton allowed a new myth to form around Einstein. Apples, however, continued to fall off of trees no matter the explanation.

One hundred years after his death few people know the story of Grigory Rasputin despite there being photographic evidence. What he did mattered in 20th century history. It does not matter if no one ever heard of him. It is also knowledge that has no bearing on our lives today. Deciding Jesus never existed will not change how history unfolded. Deciding he did exist will not change our response to him. We will have forever the Christ of faith. We will measure our actions and attitudes based on him.


Browse Our Archives