The Functionalist Theory Of Myth In The Sacred Scriptures

The term myth in the sacred scriptures has been unclear in recent times. In the West we are thought to understand myth as associated with fictional stories like the Greek Gods but scholars here reject the view that myth is to be understood as prescientific error and have looked at its complex nature and functions. Myth tells a story, with moral and singular meaning, they also serve as the community’s key and helps explain the natural order of the community’s behavior. The proper definition of myth is a complex of stories that are some factual and some elaborate, which for reasons human beings regard as demonstrations of the inner meaning of the universe and of human life. This specific definition avoids explaining if myth is untrue which is …show more content…
Myth also shapes our sense of self and who we are, like certain exemplary people like sages, saints, prophets, heroes who are the root metaphors and what it means to be genuinely real and truly human. Myth therefore disclose models of behavior for each stage in the human life cycle. Myths portray why events erupt and threatened our world and our own personal being and what we must do to be saved, liberated or renewed. There are different views and theories of myth like the Functionalist theory of myth, A Psychotherapeutic theory of myth, and a Phenomenological Interpretation of myth each theory has its own interpretation of the meaning of myth. The Functionalist Myth theory explains to us how myths help teach morality and social behavior, by stating what we should and shouldn’t do and the consequences for our wrongdoings. This theory also states that myth was created for only social control and served the purpose of insuring steadiness in a society. Bronislaw Malinowski is an anthropologist who proposed the Functionalist theory and shares how religious myths emerge to support the social order of a …show more content…
The “collective unconscious” from Jung’s viewpoint means that the unconscious includes resources that are physically real prior to their individual appropriation and are inherent abilities in the mental structure of all individuals. Jung believed that religion is the possibility of interaction with this collective unconscious and how it opens “the depths of the human soul, often with an intelligence and purposefulness superior to conscious insight.” Archetypes are forms that are shared since they occur generally, and some common archetypes are the Divine Child, Mother Earth, the Hero, the number four, and the Mandala, which all are the building blocks of myths because they help us put in contact with the collective unconsciousness where our wisdom is kept. Jung is not only interested in the archetypes of social function but also in “individuation” which is the power of an individual psychic healing, which the myth attaches to the conscious mind with the depth of the human soul living in the collective