Folktale             Legend                        Myth

Time                    Any time            Recent past                Remote past

Place                    Any place          World of today            Different world

Attitude               Secular               Secular/sacred            Sacred

Principal              Human                Human                        Non-human
Characters
 

Mircea Eliade
Myth narrates a sacred history; it relates an event that took place in primordial time, the fabled time of the beginnings
Myth tells only of that which really happened, which manifested itself completely. The actors in myths are Supernatural Beings. The are known primarily by what they did in the transcendent times of the "beginnings." Myths describe the various and sometimes dramatic breakthroughs of the sacred.
Myths narrate not only the origin of the World, of animals, of plants, and of man, but also all the primordial events in consequence of which man became what he is today - mortal, sexed, organized in society, obligated to work in order to live, and working in accordance with certain rules. If the World exists, if man exists, it is because Supernatural Beings exercised creative powers in the "beginning." But after the cosmogony and the creation of man, other events occurred, and man as he is today is the direct result of those mythical events, he is constituted by those events.
 
Claude Levi-Strauss
Myth always refers to events alleged to have taken place long ago with a timeless pattern that explains the present and the past as well as the future and which has a universal character whose substance lies in the story which it tells
 
William Bascom
Myths are prose narratives which, in the society in which they are told, are considered to be truthful accounts of what happened in the remote past
 
George Honko
Myth is a story of the gods, a religious account of the beginning of the world, the creation, fundamental events, the exemplary deeds of the gods as a result of which the world, nature and culture were created together with all parts thereof and given their order, which still obtains.

John Middleton

A myth is a statement about society and man's place in it and in the surrounding universe....Myths and cosmological notions are concerned with the relationship of a people with other peoples, with nature and with the supernatural.

Lewis Pondy
Things which never happened but always are
 
CLASS DEFINITION OF MYTH
Narratives that (1) recount the operation of transcendent forces in primorial times  that have shaped the everyday world as it presently exists and (2) provide the ultimate truths and foundational assumptions about the nature of the world and of humankind that guide and authorize our actions.

Myth Types

Creation

Worlds Above and Below

Death and Rebirth

Cosmic Combat

Quests and Tests

---

 1. Present an image of the world as organized rather than chaotic

2. Provide an image or model of the universe that supports and is supported by the power outside human control.
    Serve to support the current social order and help integrate the individual within the group

3. Elicit and support a sense of awe, gratitude or rapture in relation to the mystery of the universe and human
    existence

4. Guide individuals toward self realization through stages and crises of life
 

Narratives that morally idealize the organization and make it unique

THEMES

1.  Status and conformity to rules

2.  Humanity of leaders

3.  Mobility opportunities

4.  Protection of members

5.  Responding to personal difficulties

6.  Reacting to honest mistakes

7.  Overcoming obstacles
 

COMMON ELEMENTS

1.  Equality

2.  Security

3.  Control
 

CREATION

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Genesis I, 1-2)

First Day  – created light

Second Day  – created the firmament of Heaven, the colossal dome (or sphere) of brass within the midst of the waters of chaos, so that it divided the upper waters from the nether waters  – the waters above the firmament from those below.

Third Day  – created the earth in the very center of the firmament, and divided it from the waters so that the former became the dry land, and the latter the oceans. Created the pit of Hell at the very center of the earth.
Created trees, plants, flowers, and grasses to bear fruit for men and beasts, and herbs for the healing of diseases.

Fourth Day  – Created the sun, moon, and stars, and set them within the firmament and around the earth

Fifth Day  – Created all fish and birds

Sixth Day  – Created the beasts of the earth, and Adam, who was formed from the dust and clay of the earth. God made Adam in his own image, and breathed the breath of his own divine life into his nostrils so that man became a living soul. He made Adam the ruler of the earth, the head of nature, commanding all beasts, birds, fish, and plants to be subservient to him.

Seventh Day  – God rested and rejoiced in the knowledge that everything which he had made was good.
 

THE FALL

Adam was perfect, physical yet immortal, and all creatures of the earth obeyed him. He was created with free will so that love between humans and God would be freely given. The animals served him and the plants fed him, and there was no need for him to labor for his livelihood. He was in perfect harmony with his natural surroundings, and constantly aware of the presence of god.

God planted a garden  – Eden  – in the center of the world. In the garden was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which created the negative potentiality that Adam might choose his own will rather than God’s.

God created Eve from one of Adam’s ribs. The two were the First Parents of our race  – immortal, free from all conflict and sorrow, innocent, naked, and unashamed.

Lucifer entered the garden in the form of a serpent. He promised Eve that eating from the Tree would make her as a god, knowing good from evil. Eve ate the fruit and gave some to Adam. Their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked.

When God discovered what had happened, he pronounced a curse on the Serpent to crawl on his belly in the dust and to be in perpetual enmity with the human race. He condemned Eve, and all her female offspring, to bring forth children in pain and sorrow, and to be subject to her husband. God cursed the earth so that it would not bring forth fruit for Adam without sweat and toil. God pronounced the curse of death and of the expulsion from the garden.

From this moment death, suffering, and evil entered the material world and humans were separated from the divine life of God.

This narrative creates the Christian problem. Things are not as they should be, death and pain are imperfections, there is separation from the divine, there is conflict with nature, guilt, anxiety, and impotence of will. The task become to extricate man from the tangle in which Lucifer has involved him, to salvation
from Death and Hell.
 

Civil Religion  – a religious orientation that most Americans share that provides a religious dimension to the fabric or American life. It is not sectarian or specifically Christian but it is specific about America and has played a crucial role in the development of American institutions.
 

KEY TENETS

1. The existence of God

2. The United States is God’s chosen nation

3. There is an inherent morality in civil laws (Higher law answerable to God)

4. There is a sacred connotation to secular symbols (flag, inauguration, holidays)

5. There is a divine reward for virtue and punishment for vice

6. Exclusion of religious intolerance
 

BIBLICAL THEMES

1.   Exodus

2.   Chosen People

3.   Promised Land

4.   New Jerusalem

5.   Sacrificial death and rebirth (Civil War)

6.   Prophets (George Washington as Moses)

7.   Martyrs (Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy)

8.   Sacred events (Washington and Lincoln birthdays, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day)

9.   Sacred Places (War and presidential memorials, Supreme Court)

10. Rituals and Symbols (Inauguration, Constitution and Declaration of Independence, Songs)
 

                                                                  TYPES OF RITUAL  

                            Orientation             Basic Mood          Motivation           Activity

Decorum            Interpersonal          Cooperating          Politeness             Expected

Ceremony          Political                   Competing             Contentiousness   Enforced

Magic                Transcendent          Causing                 Anxiety                  Desired

Liturgy              Ultimate                   Being                    Reverence             Cosmically
                                                                                                                         Necessary

Celebration      Expressive               Playing                  Festive                   Spontaneous
 

Decorum - Ritual occasions in which participants engage in conventionalized behavior, appropriate gestures and postures that facilitate interaction. There is agreement about the form but not necessarily the meaning of action. Role, status and intentions are displayed.
          Examples: greeting and departing, walking in public, being a gentleman or a lady or a good sport or a guest

Ceremony - Ritual occasions in which participants surrender idiosyncrasies and independence in the name of some larger cause to which one pays homage. Actions symbolize the power to conserve or change the state of affairs.
          Examples: conventions, rallies, courtroom trials, inaugurations, convocations, state of the nation
          addresses, standing for national anthem, demonstrations, parades

Magic - Ritual occasions in which participants use transcendent power to take or restore control
         Examples, Ouiji boards, astrology, praying for results, curses, healing

Liturgy - Ritual occasions in which participants approach the sacred in a reverent, receptive way and wait upon power. Participants act in order to be acted upon.
        Examples: worship, meditation, spiritual exercises, pilgrimage

Celebration - Ritual occasions in which participants engage in expressive ritual play
        Examples: carnivals, birthdays, feasting, gaming, dancing , music making
 

Ritual is a perfunctory, conventionalized act through which an individual protrays his respect and regard for some object of ultimate value to that object of ultimate value or to its stand-in
 Erving Goffman

Ritual is a prescribed form of behavior for occasions not given over to technological routine, having reference to beliefs in invisible beings or powers regarded as the first and final causes of all effects
 Victor Turner
 

Ritual is stereotyped behavior which is potent itself in terms of the cultural conventions of the actors, though not potent in a rational-technical sense and which serves to communicate information about a culture's most cherished values
 Edmund Leech
 

CLASS DEFINITION OF RITUAL

Religious ritual is a prescribed form of behavior through which transcendent sources of value are created and affirmed. These rituals are closely scripted, dramatically organized, and authorized by the source of transcendent value, which lend to them an intrinsic value.
 

Rituals are culturally transmitted symbolic codes that are

Stylized

Regularly repeated

Dramatically structured

Authoritatively designated

Intrinsically valued
 

Ritual Properties

Repetition (occasion, form, content)

Acting (self conscious, acted not just vocalized)

Special behavior or stylization (extraordinary symbols or actions or extraordinary use of ordinary symbols)

Evocative presentational style and staging (intended to produce attentiveness or greater commitment)

Collective message and meaning

Ritual Types

 Rites of passage

Celebration rituals

Deference rituals

Punishment rituals

Purification rituals

Spiritual exercise rituals

Worship rituals

Therapeutic rituals

1. Regulate human actions, particularly in marginal settings

2. Facilitate communication of intense and powerful sentiments

3. Activate otherwise dormant human energies
 

Contests  – Games based on artificially created equality of chances so that adversaries confront each other under ideal conditions

Sporting contests, chess

Winner’s triumph is uncontestable

Vindication of personal responsibility

 Dice, roulette, lotteries

 Player is passive

 Negates individual will by surrender to destiny

Children’s games (imitating adults, soldier, police, pirate, cowboy), theatrical presentations, carnivals

Actors fascinate spectators

Whirling, acceleration, falling

Negates individual control

Games  – Social organization of play

Contests  – Intentional elimination of distinctions at outset leads to new relationship between the parties

Uncertainty, numerous possible outcomes

Contestants stand in opposition

Opposition subjugated to higher principle

Certainty, one possible outcome selected from among the alternatives

Roles

Hero  – Accepts rules, principle of fairness

Villain  – Rejects rules, value of rules

Referee  – Displays official incompetence in the face of mayhem

Moral Dilemma

Hero is responsible to both social norms and requirement for success

Villain is motivated by individual interest only

Irreconcilable opposition

Hero sets aside rules and acts on the basis of moral righteousness

Ritual creation of order out of chaos

Moral order and success are reunited

Resolution is not permanent

Characteristics of the Holy

Attracts and repels

Helpful and dangerous

Great power

A non-empirical force

Intrinsically valuable

Places a moral obligation on the worshiper and imposes ethical imperatives  

Qualities of experience of the holy

Filled with a sense of awe and fear

Feeling of unapproachability

Power, energy, urgency

Awareness of wholly otherness of the holy

A sense of fascination and attraction
 
 

Ego Quality - Experience of a loss of sense of self while consciousness is nevertheless maintained. Loss of
                       self is commonly experienced as an  absorption into something greater than empirical ego

Unifying Quality - Perception of an inner subjectivity to all things, even those usually experienced in purely
                               material forms

Inner Subjective Quality - Perception of an inner subjectivity to all things, even those usually experienced in
                                            purely material forms

Temporal/Spatial Quality -  Experience of time and space as modified, up to the point of experience of
                                              timelessness and/or spacelessness

Noetic Quality - Experience of nonrational intuitive, insightful experience as valid

Ineffability - Experience of inability of expressing experience in conventional language

Positive Effect - Experience of joy or blissful happiness

Religious Quality - Experience of intrinsic sacredness (mystery, awe, reverence)

HOLINESS RITUAL

History of the Holiness Movement

The Holiness Movement arose within Methodism in response to discontent among Methodists committed to achieving Christian perfection

Supporters of the Holiness Movement urged a “sanctifying moment” or “second blessing” that would replace the love of sinning with a love of God.

The sanctifying moment would be manifested in an instantaneous transformation (“entire sanctification,” “full restoration,” “perfect love”).

The transformed believer would testify to the experience and become accountable for its continuance

The movement developed an institutional structure with the creation of the National Camp Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness in 1867

A number of churches emerged out of the Holiness Movement, mostly during the 1880s and 1890s (Salvation Army, Church of the Nazarene, Church of God in Christ, Christian and Missionary Alliance)

Organization of the Holiness Ritual

The purpose of the ritual is to become one with the sacred

Participants are ordered by where they are located with respect to becoming one with the sacred

Saved or called (Baptized as an adult, knowingly accept Christ as personal savior)

Sanctified or committed (Individuals have fully incorporated the teachings of Christ into their being such that their everyday behavior, lifestyle, and outlook reflect those principles)

Filled with the Holy Ghost (Individuals who are both saved and sanctified, are in complete harmony with the teachings of Christ as indicated by spirit possession, and use of spiritual power to perform ministries in the group)

Pastor (An individual who offers the most complete evidence of having become. This person is saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost and has received the call, answered the call, served as an apprentice pastor, and excelled in the ministries of preaching, song, and healing)

Space within the church is ordered spiritually from

Rear to front
Floor to platform
Left to right

Speech forms are ordered spiritually

Spoken Word
Song
Chant
Glossolalia

Manifestations of the Spirit are ordered

Clapping, swaying (unsaved)
Dancing minimally in place (saved)
Dancing with movement, beseech Spirit with palms raised to receive Spirit, go into various depths of trance symbolized by speaking in tongues, loss of motor control, collapse (sanctified)

The roles of participants in the religious rituals are ordered by their spiritual status. Spiritual standing is coded by dress color, physical location within the church, and prominence in the rituals

General congregation (mostly middle aged women and children in conservative dress, saved and unsaved)
Zionettes Choir (children 6-12 dressed in white aspiring to being saved)
Fellowship Choir (mostly 14-21 year old females dressed in turquoise, pink, and green dresses, saved)
Musicians (adolescents or senior mothers, saved or sanctified)
Memorial Choir (junior and senior mothers, deacons, and trustees in black dress, sanctified)
Deacons and Trustees (older sanctified men)
Nurses (senior mothers in white nurses dress who watch over those possessed with the Holy Spirit)
Assistant Pastor (sanctified member who conducts the first half of the ritual)
Head Pastor (sanctified wearing black dress with red trim indicating the blood of Christ who leads the second half of the service)

 

STRUCTURE OF THE HOLINESS SERVICE

Beginning the service (crossing the threshold)

Processional (entrance in spiritual order, an indicator of spiritual status)

Call to Worship (asserting worship service)

Invocation (invocation of Holy Spirit by Assistant Pastor or a Senior Mother, chanting)

"Our Father" (statement of belief, supplication)

Scripture Reading (hearing and accepting the word, presented in reverent spoken word)

Hymn (prayer and limited spirit breakthrough)

Apostles' Creed (statement of belief and commitment)

Hymn (prayer with moderate spirit breakthrough in the form of dancing)

Collection for Home and Foreign Mission

Hymn (prayer with extensive spirit breakthrough; entire congregation stands, claps, and sways; dancing and speaking in tongues by higher spiritual status participants; pastor enters the sanctuary)

Introduction of the Pastor

Pastor’s Morning Message (uses a scriptural passage to address a problem confronting the congregation as a whole, asks how problem would have been solved in Biblical times, and concludes with extensive witnessing of the Spirit by higher spiritual status participants)

Alter Call (Pastor touches each person who comes to the alter on the forehead to indicate that the Spirit is working in the Pastor and now in the person)

Offertory (collection taken by the Assistant Pastor)

Benediction (Pastor asks the Lord’s blessing for those present)

Aftermath (Participants remain in the church for fellowship)