There is something about the Great Stories of the world’s religions — the Myths, the Sagas, the Epic Tales of heroism — something that defies reduction to mere literal concepts.  Something that can only be understood through the expression of great stories.  Seth recently wrote about the story of Jacob wrestling with an angel, and in do so made this observation:

It’s no wonder the Torah is out of fashion, since our modern sensibility mistakenly thinks of it merely as a source of what, of ethics? Of prayer? Of knowledge? All of them are there, but that’s not the central meaning or use of Torah. Torah is an epic, a dramatic, an eternal love story, starring God and the Jews. By saying story, I don’t mean it isn’t true. I mean it’s truer than we can put into any synopsis. It is by diluting its living heart into easy, cold, mental concepts that we make it false. We can derive from Torah, but we can never reduce Torah. It doesn’t survive reduction.

I think this insight is equally applicable to all the world’s religions and their Great Stories, which are sometimes denigrated as mere “myth.”  But these Myths, just as the stories of the Torah or the Bible, express a deeper truth.  The stories should not be taken merely literally.  They may be true, in a sense, but they are more than true.     A mere literal reading of any of these Great Stories does them a great injustice.  So does trying to reduce their lessons to a simple formula or dry list.

I’ve said similar things about ritual recently.  Like ritual, it seems to me that these Great Stories speak to a deeper part of ourselves.  They speak in a universal language that exists beyond and between the literal words.  I believe that one cannot truly understand their own religion without knowing and honoring the Great Stories of their tradition.

A Christian should listen to the stories of their Bible.  A neo-pagan reconstructionist should read the epics and sagas of their spiritual ancestors.  But, in reading or listening, I am thinking we should try to feel the story — experience it, like being drawn into a suspenseful novel, drawn into the story and letting it fill us.  Try to let go of “understanding” the story, analyzing it, breaking it down and trying to figure out how it “ticks.”  That can always come later.  Just allow yourself to be in awe of the beauty and mystery they contain.

I think that, somewhere therein, lies their true relevance.