Title: Where are our myths?
Product review: Not really a history so much as an essay on the significance of myth and its role in human society and psyche. As is typical with much of Karen Armstrong's work, she shines best when writing about Western religious traditions; the bits on Eastern religions and philosophies seem almost perfunctory. This would make a good book for a discussion group as it raises a number of interesting questions (and at 150+ pages it is not hugely demanding). Armstrong notes the necessity of myth for both individual and social sustenance, and laments its disappearance from contemporary capitalist society. But as the new world order shows no signs of imminent collapse, is Armstrong's thesis correct? Is myth indeed necessary? Or, is there perhaps a mythology that we can't yet see, a forest for the trees?
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