Walter Goffart (1934) American historian
Source: Quotaes, Barbarian Tides (2010), p. 40
Radio From Hell (March 21, 2006)
Walter Goffart (1934) American historian
Source: Quotaes, Barbarian Tides (2010), p. 40
Robert Hunter (author) (1874–1942) American sociologist, author, golf course architect
Source: Why We Fail as Christians (1919), p. 22
Alan Greenspan (1926) 13th Chairman of the Federal Reserve in the United States
Source: 2000s, The Age of Turbulence (2008), Chapter Twelve, "The Universals of Economic Growth", p. 265.
Mordechai Ben-Ari (1948) Israeli computer scientist
Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 11, “Logic and Mathematics: Scientists Like It Clear and Precise” (p. 184)
Mircea Eliade (1907–1986) Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer and philosopher
Myth and Reality (1963)
Context: Myth is an extremely complex cultural reality, which can be approached and interpreted from various and complementary viewpoints.
Speaking for myself, the definition that seems least inadequate because most embracing is this: Myth narrates a sacred history; it relates an event that took place in primordial Time, the fabled time of the "beginnings." In other words myth tells how, through the deeds of Supernatural Beings, a reality came into existence, be it the whole of reality, the Cosmos, or only a fragment of reality — an island, a species of plant, a particular kind of human behavior, an institution. Myth, then, is always an account of a "creation"; it relates how something was produced, began to be. Myth tells only of that which really happened, which manifested itself completely. The actors in myths are Supernatural Beings. They are known primarily by what they did in the transcendent times of the "beginnings." hence myths disclose their creative activity and reveal the sacredness (or simply the "supernaturalness") of their works. In short, myths describe the various and sometimes dramatic breakthroughs of the sacred (or the "supernatural") into the World. It is this sudden breakthrough of the sacred that really establishes the World and makes it what it is today. Furthermore, it is as a result of the intervention of Supernatural Beings that man himself is what he is today, a mortal, sexed, and cultural being.
The Divine Commodity: Discovering A Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity (2009, Zondervan)
“Being good is easy, what is difficult is being just.”
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist