- bene - well, favorable
- bible - book
- ence, ency - action, state of, quality
- er, or - one who, that which
- cred - believe
Poster Walk
- Take notes on the posters in order to prepare for a future quiz. You may put these notes in with your journals as Journal 4, or use this chart as a digital format. (If you use the chart, you will have to add a few more boxes at the bottom to get the ones that were added this year.)
Journal 5: Lewis on Myth
What is it about those myths? Why are they worth studying anyway?
C.S. Lewis has a pretty cool answer. Summarize his thoughts from the short blurb below. What is he saying Greek stories really are? What were the Greeks actually hoping for in their own stories?
In one way, of course, God has given us the Morning Star already: you can go and enjoy the gift on many fine mornings if you get up early enough. What more, you may ask, do we want? Ah, but we want so much more -- something the books on aesthetics take little notice of. But the poets and the mythologies know all about it. We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words--to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses and nymphs and elves--that, though we cannot, yet these projections can enjoy in themselves that beauty, grace, and power of which Nature is the image. That is why the poets tell us such lovely falsehoods. They talk as if the west wind could really sweep into a human soul; but it can't. They tell us that "beauty born of murmuring sound" will pass into a human face; but it won't. Or not yet. For if we take the imagery of scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendour of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door.... but all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Someday, God willing, we shall get in. (from The Weight of Glory).
HW: Do a bit of research and talk with your friends. You will soon need to film a Greek Myth. Who will you work with? What myth will you choose? Use this homework free night to explore some myths for fun...I recommend the TED short films on youtube.
