Creative Mythology (the Masks of God, Volume 4)

An updated edition of the beloved final volume in Joseph Campbell’s monumental Masks of God series, Creative Mythology tells the inner story of humanity’s entire philosophical, spiritual, and artistic history since the Dark Ages, ultimately positioning each of us as the creator of our own mythology. In this fourth and final volume in The Masks of God series — Joseph Campbell’s major work of comparative mythology — the preeminent mythologist looks at the birth of the modern, individualistic mythology as it developed in Europe beginning in the twelfth century. Tracing the disintegration of orthodox tradition up through the radical art and philosophies of the late twentieth century, Campbell arrives at an astonishing insight: modern humans are the first to witness the creation of myth and position themselves as the center of their own mythology. Upon completing Creative Mythology, he wrote that his work on The Masks of God had confirmed his long-held belief in the unity of humanity, “which has everywhere unfolded in the manner of a single symphony, with its themes announced, developed, amplified and turned about, distorted, reasserted, and, today, in a grand fortissimo of all sections sounding together, irresistibly advancing to some kind of mighty climax, out of which the next great movement will emerge.” Updated with new illustrations that support Campbell’s perceptive analysis of human cultural evolution, this new edition of Creative Mythology remains as vital, revelatory, and urgent as the original did upon publication more than half a century ago.