Quaker Universalist Voice

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We found 61 matches for the search “myth”.

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Jewish universalism & nationalism in Vichy & post-war France

“Truth for children” is a phrase from a radio address by Emmanuel Levinas in September 1945, shortly after his release from a German prisoner of war camp set aside for Jews. The Geneva conventions had protected Jewish prisoners of war from the worst atrocities of the Holocaust, yet death was a constant threat. It was a time of Jewish awakening for many. As Hammerschlag writes, quoting Levinas (p.54):

“’The Jew lent his own significance to the sadness that he shared with his non-Jewish comrades, a consciousness of Judaism acute as a spasm.’ Within this context, the biblical accounts of the Jewish people took on a new significance. ‘After so many detours,’ Levinas suggested that the stories of the patriarchs, of God and Pharaoh, became true ‘in their elementary truth, in their truth for children, in their vulgar truth.’”

Found in: /weblog/jewish-universalism-nationalism-in-vichy-post-war-france


Understanding Belief

The fact that religious systems include a substantial element of magic thinking and mythology does not disprove their usefulness in a difficult world. Religious belief has been common in all cultures since the beginning of human time because, from an evolutionary point of view, it has demonstrable survival value. At all times of history, human life has been a dangerous and fearful proposition. Religion has often functioned well to abate fear, instill intention, promote courage, and protect from despair.

Found in: /weblog/understanding-belief


Myths are truths

Rabbi Neil Gillman used the term “myth” to mean an organizing principle into which we fit certain facts and experiences, a narrative structure that communicates a community’s master-narrative.

Found in: /weblog/myths-are-truths


The World After Truth

The World After Truth … “You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” —John 8:32 … “’What is truth?’ said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.” —Francis Bacon … “The ideal subject of totalitarian…

Found in: /weblog/the-world-after-truth


Get Real

In a comment responding to our April 27 th post, “On discernment,” guest blogger Clem Gerdelmann referred to French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Jacques Marie Émile Lacan. Here is Friend Clem’s further reflection on Lacan. In truth, Jacques…

Found in: /weblog/get-real


False dichotomies

An excerpt from Chapter Five of Stephen Jay Gould’s Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time (1987). “We often try to cram our complex world into the confines of what human reason can grasp, by…

Found in: /weblog/false-dichotomies