Bierlein cites a number of authoritative sources, from Freud and Jung to theologians and philosophers, to arrive at a coherent definition of myth and its profound yet intangible importance. Myths present humanity with a sense of truth beyond rational or scientific thought, beyond facts, a truth more akin to poetry. They provide a link to the past deeper than mere history and a link to the subconscious more complex than mere psychology. Carl Jung, pioneer of psychoanalysis and the theory of the collective unconscious, argues, “Myth is the natural and indispensable intermediate stage between unconscious and conscious cognition” (258). They speak to humanity in a language closer to thought than language itself. They act as a bridge between humanity and the mysteries of the universe, allowing human beings to imagine—rightly or wrongly—that they understand those mysteries. Myth is, in many ways, a spiritual language humans have created to confront an unknowable world in knowable terms.

Subsection 1 Summary: “The Discovery of Parallel Myths”

As European colonial powers expanded their borders, they were surprised to find many similarities between their own rituals and beliefs and those of the new cultures they encountered—parallels between Spanish Catholicism and the Incas of Peru, for example, or between the Plains Indians of North America and European Jews.