Parallel Myths

J. F. Bierlein has worked in politics and academia, serving as the International Programs Coordinator for Northwood University and as an adjunct professor at American University. His interests include theology, existential philosophy, classical Greek history, and Latin American art. He is also the author of Living Myths: How Myth Gives Meaning to Human Experience (1999). Bierlein’s interdisciplinary approach to the study of myth makes for a broad, intersectional study. He demonstrates how myth can be analyzed and interpreted through historical, sociological, psychological, and theological lenses, and how those diverse disciplines support and augment each other, providing a richer and more nuanced understanding of humanity’s spiritual need for myth. While Bierlein cites a bevy of historical scholars—including existential philosophers Jaspers, Sartre, and Heidegger as well as Freud and Jung—he contextualizes their theories, taking them out of isolated vacuum of history and elucidating their relevance. He places special emphasis on Judeo-Christian traditions and their ethical importance to Western civilization, arguing that Western societies must recapture the wonder and awe that only myth can provide if they seek to quell the unrest, the dissatisfaction, and the lack of clear moral guidance that currently plague them.