detail+on+the+course


 * MYTH, LEGEND AND THE BIBLE **

The course is a year long, and happens as follows. They start by defining myth; he sees them as, in a sense, true stories, as they are sacred to the culture they came from. After this they look at patterns of myths from across the world, especially creation myths, which often have things in common. They move on to the origin of myth, try to get to Palaeolithic mythic belief through the use of archaeology and also the beliefs of isolated tribes, who may hold onto ancient stories, and are uncontaminated by outside influence. They move on to southwestern European cave paintings, from the Mesolithic, which are the first evidence we have not only of art but also religion, and then Neolithic ritual and the beginnings of sacrifice, be it human, animal, or a portion of their crop. This brings them to the Old Testament. They do not look at the Bible as revealed truth, but as stories handed down that hold some lesson or deeper meaning. They also look at it from a secular point of view, look at the archaeological evidence that sometimes proves but often disputes what is written. They read a good chunk of the Old Testament. They then move onto fairy tales from a Jungian/Freudian perspective Freud said that “the psychologist is the priest of the modern era”, while Jung thought that “dreams are private myths; and myths are public dreams”. Students write a paper where they analyse a fairy tale or folk tale from a Freudian/Jungian perspective. They read Greek myths, which Mr. Lee feel set the scene for Old Testament in many ways. They then read the oldest Gospel, Mark, and some other verses from the Bible. Next they move onto legends, such as the stories of King Arthur and Beowulf. The students do a project with Beowulf. That is essentially the end. Mr. Lee would like to include Eastern and Norse philosophy, but he doesn’t know enough about them yet to include them. He is in the process of learning about them in order to add them to the course. At the end of the year, they watch the Star War movies, in many ways put most of the ideas of the class together. For the final exam they write a paper about Star Wars.