Vol. IX, Part 1
Opera Omnia
Motilal Banarsidass Publications
Volume IX is composed of three sections, which deal with myth, symbol and cult. In modern-day language, myth means anything unreal or simply a legend with a degree of fantasy. When I use the term mythos, however, I refer to its traditional (if not always clear meaning, that is, a different way of expressing a conviction, or rather a truth that is not necessarily clearly and distinctly understood by reason but is, nonetheless, accepted as obvious and therefore does not need to be proven.
This first part begins with a description of the relationship between mythos and tolerance, and also the relationship between mythos and the problem of morality. Three general studies follow on the meaning of mythos and its relationship with language and therefore also with theology as illustrated by four mythoi from India referring to creation, guilt, redemption, man and human condition, the restoration of innocence and sexuality. The message of these mythoi cannot be conveyed through an exclusively rational process of reflection, but through metaphors and symbols, using the spoken word as a vehicle for the logos. Man cannot be reduced to the individual, or to a mere concept, and the most powerful means he has to approach to reality and his fellow men is the symbol.
In the second section, after some general reflections on what the symbol is, we take as an example a word that is fundamental in the East, and also often misunderstood: karman – a word which, when reduced to a concept, becomes vulnerable to reason. While the symbol of karman is prevalent in half of our cultures, the metaphor of the drop of water as a symbol of the condition of all existence, including that of humans, is almost universal.
The third section consists of a text written in 1973, which focuses on worship not as a ceremony but as an expression of homo religiosus, not as a function, but as an activity that Man carries out in communion with the cosmos for the sustenance of the universe. Secularity, i.e. an interest in the secular, has too often been considered an obstacle to spiritual life in many traditions. The pro-fane (before the fanum, sacred place) is the opposite of the sacred, but not the secular, which can be experienced in its sacredness.
INDEX OF ORIGINAL TEXTS IN VOLUME IX, PART 1
“Tolerance, Ideology and Myth” in R.Panikkar, Myth, Faith and Hermeneutics, Paulist, New York, 1979, reprint ATC, Bangalore 1983, chap. 2; reviewed in in Mito, fede ed ermeneutica. Il triplice velo della realtà, Jaca Book, Milano 2000, chap. 1, pp. 33-49.
“The Moral of Myth and the Myth of Morality” in R.Panikkar Myth, Faith and Hermeneutics, Paulist, New York, 1979, reprint ATC, Bangalore 1983, chap. 3; reviewed in Mito, fede ed ermeneutica. Il triplice velo della realtà, Jaca Book, Milano 2000. chap. 2, pp. 52-76.
“The Sense of Myth” , Introducción a Diccionario de las mitologías, vol V, Las mitologías de Asia, Spanish ed. by Raimon Panikkar and Jaime Pórtulas, Destino, Barcelona 2000.
“Mythos and Logos. Mythological Vision and Rational Vision of The World,” Mythos und Logos. Mythologische und rationale Weltsichten, in H.P. Dürr, W.Ch. Zimmer- li (ed), Geist und Natur, Scherz, Bern-München-Wien 1989, pp. 206-220.
“A Good Theologian Should Be a Lover of Myths”, A Good Theologian Should be a Lover of Myths, in B. Bruteau (ed.), As We are One. «Essays and Poems». In Honor of Bede Griffiths, Philosopher’s Exchange, Pfafftown 1991.
“The Myth of Prajåpati – Originating Fault or Creative Immolation” in R.Panikkar, Myth, Faith and Hermeneutics, Paulist, New York, 1979, reprint ATC, Bangalore 1983, chap. 4; reviewed in Mito, fede ed ermeneutica. Il triplice velo della realtà, Jaca Book, Milano 2000, chap. 3, pp. 77-104.
“Âuna¢©epa. A Myth of the Human Condition” in R.Panikkar, Myth, Faith and Hermeneutics, Paulist, New York, 1979, reprint ATC, Bangalore 1983, chap. 5; reviewed in Mito, fede ed ermeneutica. Il triplice velo della realtà, Jaca Book, Milano 2000, chap. 4, pp. 105-185.
“Yama: A Myth of the Primordial Man”, in Edgar C. Polomé (ed.), Essays in memory of Karl Kerényi, «Journal of Indo-European Studies». Monograph Series, 4, Washington D.C. 1984, pp. 28- 38.
“The Myth of Incest as Redemption in Vedic India”, in R.J. Zwi Werblowsky, C.J. Bleeker (ed.), Types of Redemption, E.J. Brill, Leiden 1970.
“Symbol and Symbolisation”, Símbolo y simbolización. La diferencia simbólica. Para una lectura intercultural del símbolo, in Círculo Eranos I. Arquetipos y símbolos colectivos (Kerényi, Neumann, Scholem, Hillman), Anthropos, Barcelona 1994.
“Logomythy and Western Thought” in AA. VV. , Rosmini e l’illuminismo. Proceedings of the 21st ‘Cattedra Rosmini’ Programme, International Centre of Rosminian Studies, Stresa 1987. This chapter is a summary of the conference ‘Rosmini and Enlightenment’ held in 1987 at the ‘Cattedra Rosmini’ and published in the Conference Proceedings.
“The Law of karman and the historical dimension of Man” in R.Panikkar, Myth, Faith and Hermeneutics, Paulist, New York, 1979, reprint ATC, Bangalore 1983, chap. 14; reviewed in Mito, fede ed ermeneutica. Il triplice velo della realtà, Jaca Book, Milano 2000, chap. 13, pp. 353-78.
“The Drop of Water. An Intercultural Metaphor,” in Sadananda Das, Ernst Fürlinger (ed.), Samarasya. Studies in Indian Arts, Philosophy and Interreligious Dialogue, D.K. Printworld, Delhi 2005; elaboration of an old text ‘L’eau et la mort,’ in Archivio di Filosofia (Istituto di studi filosofici) Roma. 1981.
“Worship”, Worship and Secular Man, Dalton and Orbis, New York 1973, reprinted 1975. Reviewed version Culto y secularización. Apuntes para una antropología litúrgica, Marova, Madrid 1979.