Editing Joseph Campbell (section)

===Monomyth===
{{Main|Monomyth}}
Campbell's concept of ''monomyth'' (one myth) refers to the theory that sees all [[myth]]ic [[narrative]]s as variations of a single great story. The theory is based on the observation that a common pattern exists beneath the narrative elements of most great myths, regardless of their origin or time of creation. Campbell often referred to the ideas of [[Adolf Bastian]] and his distinction between what he called "folk" and "elementary" ideas, the latter referring to the prime matter of monomyth while the former to the multitude of local forms the myth takes in order to remain an up-to-date carrier of [[sacred]] meanings. The central pattern most studied by Campbell is often referred to as "[[Hero's journey|the hero's journey]]" and was first described in ''[[The Hero with a Thousand Faces]]'' (1949).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://orias.berkeley.edu/hero/|title=Monomyth Website, ORIAS, UC Berkeley|date=December 26, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121226220838/http://orias.berkeley.edu/hero/|archive-date=December 26, 2012|access-date=April 2, 2018}}</ref> An enthusiast of novelist [[James Joyce]],<ref name="jcf">{{cite web|url=http://www.jcf.org/works.php?id=331|publisher=jcf.org|title=Joseph Campbell Foundation&nbsp;– Works: ''Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake'', A|access-date=January 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711190723/https://www.jcf.org/works.php?id=331|archive-date=July 11, 2017}}</ref> Campbell borrowed the term "monomyth" from Joyce's ''[[Finnegans Wake]]''.{{sfn|Campbell|1949|loc=p.&nbsp;30, n.&nbsp;35}} Campbell also made heavy use of [[Carl Jung]]'s theories on the structure of the [[human psyche]], and he often used terms such as [[Anima and animus|anima, animus]] and [[Self in Jungian psychology|ego consciousness]].

As a strong believer in the [[Adolf Bastian#The Psychic Unity of Mankind|psychic unity of mankind]] and its [[poetic]] expression through mythology, Campbell made use of the [[concept]] to express the idea that the whole of the human race can be seen as engaged in the effort of making the world ''"transparent to transcendence"'' by showing that underneath the world of [[phenomena]] lies an eternal source which is constantly pouring its energies into this world of time, suffering, and ultimately death. To achieve this task one needs to speak about things that existed before and beyond words, a seemingly impossible task, the solution to which lies in the [[metaphor]]s found in myths. These metaphors are statements that point beyond themselves into the [[Transcendence (philosophy)|transcendent]]. The Hero's Journey was the story of the man or woman who, through great suffering, reached an experience of the eternal source and returned with gifts powerful enough to set their society free.

As this story spread through space and evolved through time, it was broken down into various local forms ([[mask]]s), depending on the [[social structure]]s and environmental pressures that existed for the culture that interpreted it. The basic structure, however, has remained relatively unchanged and can be classified using the various stages of a hero's adventure through the story, stages such as ''the Call to Adventure, Receiving Supernatural Aid, Meeting with the [[Goddess]]/Atonement with the Father'' and ''Return''. These stages, as well as the symbols one encounters throughout the story, provide the necessary [[metaphor]]s to express the spiritual truths the story is trying to convey. Metaphors for Campbell, in contrast with ''[[simile]]s'' which make use of the word ''like'', pretend to a literal interpretation of what they are referring to, as in the sentence "[[Jesus]] is the Son of [[God]]" rather than "the relationship of man to God is ''like'' that of a son to a father".<ref>Campbell J. [1999] Mythos: The shaping of our mythic tradition</ref>

In the 1987 documentary ''Joseph Campbell: A Hero's Journey'', he explains God in terms of a metaphor:

<blockquote>God is a metaphor for a mystery that absolutely transcends all human categories of thought, even the categories of being and non-being. Those are categories of thought. I mean it's as simple as that. So it depends on how much you want to think about it. Whether it's doing you any good. Whether it is putting you in touch with the mystery that's the ground of your own being. If it isn't, well, it's a lie. So half the people in the world are religious people who think that their metaphors are facts. Those are what we call theists. The other half are people who know that the metaphors are not facts. And so, they're lies. Those are the [[atheist]]s.<ref>Joseph Campbell: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093183/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_28 The Hero's Journey], 1987 documentary ( [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1afO2sfpA0 see clip at 0:04])</ref></blockquote>