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The hero is us: bringing a new, religious vision to life is a great adventure - Essay
National Catholic Reporter, Jan 25, 2002 by Rich Heffern
This recent declaration of new dogma shows so well how our religious images reflect our experience, Kennedy said.
The hero's journey required of us now is the fostering and developing of this new spiritual vision. Each one of us, like little Frodo in the hit movie, is charged with a noble and heroic task: implementing this new spiritual vision, giving birth to it in our lives and institutions. "If the universe is no longer divided, then we can no longer divide humans into upper and lower," Kennedy said. "We can no longer separate spirit from body. When we see the wholeness everywhere, wounds will be healed, especially the sexual wounds."
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Joseph Campbell was closely linked with another blockbuster series of movies -- director George Lucas' "Star Wars" series. In fact, the Moyers interviews took place at Lucas' Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, Calif.
In the interview with Kennedy, Campbell talks about the Stanley Kubrick film "2001: A Space Odyssey," particularly the opening scenes that depict our ape-like ancestors millions of years ago, snarling and squabbling with each other, then cowering together in fear at night while predators lurk outside their cave. "Yet there is one among them," Campbell points out, "who is slightly different, one who is drawn out of curiosity to approach and explore, one who has a sense of awe before the unknown. This one is apart and alone, seated in wonder before a panel of stone standing mysteriously upright in the landscape. He contemplates it, then he reaches out and touches it cautiously in the way the first astronaut's foot approached and then gently touched down on the moon.
"Awe, you see, is what moves us forward," said Campbell.
It's the same awe that sends chills up and down our spines as we sit in rapt wonder watching the perilous travels of a little furry-footed hobbit. It's the same awe that dwells at the heart of our religious experience.
"We live in the stars," says Campbell, "and we are finally moved by awe to our greatest adventures. The kingdom of God is within us."
Rich Heffern is NCR opinion editor. His e-mail address is rheffern@natcath.org
COPYRIGHT 2002 National Catholic Reporter
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
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