Thou Art that: Transforming Religious Metaphor

Joseph Campbell

New World Library, 2001 - Religion - 136 pages

Thou Art That is a compilation of previously uncollected essays and lectures by Joseph Campbell that focus on the Judeo-Christian tradition. Here Campbell explores common religious symbols, reexamining and reinterpreting them in the context of his remarkable knowledge of world mythology. According to Campbell, society often confuses the literal and metaphorical interpretations of religious stories and symbols. In this collection, he eloquently reestablishes these metaphors as a means to enhance spiritual understanding and mystical revelation. With characteristic verve, he ranges from rich storytelling to insightful comparative scholarship. Included is editor Eugene Kennedy's classic interview with Campbell in The New York Times Magazine, which brought the scholar to the public's attention for the first time.

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LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Meredy - LibraryThing

Six-word review: Mythology and spiritual symbolism interpreted metaphorically. Extended review: This is the first volume in a series of compilations of material from the lectures and essays of Joseph ...

Thou art that: transforming religious metaphor

User Review  - Not Available - Book Verdict

Any book by Campbell must attract the attention of a broad public, given not only the continued success of his Hero with a Thousand Faces but also his series of televised interviews with Bill Moyers ...

About the author

Joseph Campbell was born in White Plains, New York on March 26, 1904. He received a B.A. in English literature in 1925 and an M.A. in Medieval literature in 1927 from Columbia University. He was awarded a Proudfit Traveling Fellowship to continue his studies at the University of Paris. After he had received and rejected an offer to teach at his high school alma mater, his Fellowship was renewed, and he traveled to Germany to resume his studies at the University of Munich. During the year he was housemaster of Canterbury School, he sold his first short story, Strictly Platonic, to Liberty magazine. In 1934, he accepted a position in the literature department at Sarah Lawrence College, a post he would retain until retiring in 1972. During his lifetime, he wrote more than 40 books including The Hero with a Thousand Faces, The Mythic Image, the four-volume The Masks of God, and The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers. During the 1940s and 1950s, he collaborated with Swami Nikhilananda on translations of the Upanishads and The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He received several awards including National Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Contributions to Creative Literature and the 1985 National Arts Club Gold Medal of Honor in Literature. He died after a brief struggle with cancer on October 30, 1987.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Thou Art that: Transforming Religious Metaphor; Oeuvres, Joseph Campbell; The collected works of Joseph Campbell, Joseph Campbell Foundation
• Author: Joseph Campbell
• Editor: Eugene C. Kennedy
• Contributor: Eugene C. Kennedy
• Publisher: New World Library, 2001
• ISBN: 1577312023, 9781577312024
• Length: 136 pages
• Subjects: Religion / Comparative Religion