Rebuilding God: An Introduction

This is a book about rebuilding a broken myth.

Myths exist in every culture in every time; in fact, the myths of the culture are the structures on which a culture is built. The cultural myth is the grand story that explains who the people are, where they came from, where they are going, and the purpose of life itself. These, you will recognize, are questions of the soul; questions that are bigger than our finite and very limited language. That’s why stories of the soul can only be transmitted from one generation to another in the rich symbolic language of the myth.

Myths may not be factual, but they are the vehicles of the highest truths, nonetheless. Myths are based, often, in real people and real places, as in the case of men like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. These were real people who lived in specific times and places, and did certain things. These are empirical facts. But the story that develops around these people and how we tell the story reveals the truth of our own hearts; the values that are at the core of our culture. In the words of E. L. Doctorow, “History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.”

Other myths are not based in the history of a singular person, but are fictional people who have been created out of the universals of human experience. As in the case of folk tales and dreams, the truths of our human condition are personified in flesh and blood. The actions of these archetypal characters symbolize the processes that we all must undertake, and the difficulty, doubt, and ultimate fulfillment associated with these processes. Such is the case in the story of Odyssey. And such is the case in the ancient and eternal Egyptian myth of Isis, Osiris, and Seth.

There are many different versions of the Osiris story, but the basic storyline goes something like this. Osiris was a God loved by the people of Egypt. He had a sister, Isis, and a brother, Seth. Like Cain in the Old Testament story, Seth was jealous of his brother’s good favor, and plotted to kill him. He built a beautiful coffin, and announced that the box would be given to whoever was able to fit within it. Many men came, each laying down in the coffin in turn. But the coffin was not a fit for any of them. Finally, Osiris was persuaded to try the box on for size. Once inside the coffin, Seth immediately nailed down the lid, and sent the entrapped God down the river.

Isis, who loved her brother deeply, went searching for him and found the box lodged in a tree downriver. She promptly opened the box, freeing Osiris. Upon hearing the news, Seth was enraged. He found his brother, fell upon him, and hacked him into pieces with his knife. These pieces he flung to the four ends of the earth, and his anger was quelled. Osiris had been destroyed.

The beautiful thing about a myth is that it is indirect enough to carry different truths for different people at different times. I see the story of Osiris, Isis, and Seth as a metamyth, or a myth about myths. In this interpretation, Osiris represents the popular myth of a culture. Seth, the evil trickster in the story, is the chaos that upsets the order and becomes the impetus for growth. This is the energy that must manifest during the process of maturity and individuation. When we begin to confront our handed-down meanings, we may find them unsatisfying or lacking. Anger may arise, the kind of anger a child feels when he realizes that his parents are not perfect. In the role of Seth, we put our handed-down myth under the microscope and pick it apart, piece by piece.

This is not a joyful process. Unmasking our myths is often felt as a painful loss. Like Isis, we mourn for Osiris, and the sense of unity and coherence that he represents. Isis, after all, represents the feminine energy of the soul; this is the energy that seeks, that waits, that listens and tries to understand and unite all things, that lives with the tension of complexity and sees beyond categories of either/or.

After the dismemberment of her brother Osiris, Isis still hopes, still believes. With a heavy heart and a passionate determination, she begins her journey – her quest to recover the missing pieces. To the four corners of the earth she goes, recovering Osiris, piece by piece. When her task has been completed, she has rebuilt the dead God; all except for one important piece. The phallus, the regenerative power of Osiris, has been eaten by a crocodile. Skillfully and lovingly, Isis begins to craft a new phallus out of precious gold. After the new piece has been attached, Isis embraces Osiris, and they unite. From this union, a child is born -- a new generation of God.

Spiritual evolution is the process of myth busting and myth building. We want to hate Seth for what he did to Osiris; but Seth represents the necessary task that every generation must face.

Schleiermacher (1958) tells us that
Times of corruption await all human things, even though of divine origin. New ambassadors from God will be required with exalted power to draw the recreant to itself and purify the corrupt with heavenly fire, and every such epoch of humanity is a palingenesis of Christianity, and awakes its spirit in a new and more beautiful form. (pg. 251)

We must find the power of Seth-- the power of keen analysis, critical thinking, and the courage to question – within ourselves if we want to grow. But that is not the end of the process. Isis must also appear. With respect and appreciation for what has been broken, we must go back and search again for those pieces of the past. There is much to be valued in the symbols of a dead myth, and we need the continuity and the unity that they provide. But in order for these to live again, we must add something of ourselves, something of our own generation. Evolutionary step by evolutionary step, Osiris must be dismembered and reconstituted in every generation. This is the process that keeps the myth relevant and true as we grow in understanding and consciousness.

This is the story of my own mythical quest to come to terms with Osiris – the journey through chaos of Seth to the constructive power of Isis. This is the story of the rebirth of God in my own life.

Rebuilding God :Table of Contents


PART 1: THE DECONSTRUCTION

Chapter 1: Fundamental Doubts

Chapter 2: The Emergence of Fundamentalism and Pentecostal Fundamentalism

Chapter 3: The Evolution of Faith

Chapter 4: The Palingenisis of Christianity

Chapter 5: Owning Our Stories

Chapter 6: When Religion Bolted the Door

PART 2: THE RECONSTRUCTION

Chapter 7: Revisioning Jesus

Chapter 8: Towards an Integration of Faith and Science

Chapter 9: The New Language of God, Christ, and the Church