{"id":2360,"date":"2025-05-08T09:56:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T09:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raimon-panikkar.org\/?page_id=2360"},"modified":"2025-12-16T14:52:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T14:52:32","slug":"glossary-history-as-myth-and-the-myth-of-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/raimon-panikkar.org\/?page_id=2360","title":{"rendered":"GLOSSARY &#8211; History as Myth and the Myth of History"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"2360\" class=\"elementor elementor-2360\" data-elementor-post-type=\"page\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-28100308 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"28100308\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6f5b0233 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"6f5b0233\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;background_background&quot;:&quot;classic&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-23e6ebe9 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"23e6ebe9\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a06378a elementor-widget__width-initial elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"a06378a\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">HISTORY AS MYTH AND THE MYTH OF HISTORY<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4f1a0cc elementor-widget-mobile__width-initial elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"4f1a0cc\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p align=\"justify\">\u201cHistory constitutes the myth <em>par excellence<\/em> of both Christianity and the predominant culture in the West\u201d (<em>La nueva inocencia<\/em>).<\/p><p align=\"justify\">\u201cHistory should not be idolized \u2026 A historical reality is simply a reality, but it is not synonymous with reality \u2026 When I say that history is the myth of the West, I use the word \u201cmyth\u201d not in the sense of a fable or something unreal, but rather as something that one believes in to such a degree that one does not even believe that one believes: it is taken as natural, obvious, self-evident\u201d (<em>Ecosofia<\/em>).<\/p><p align=\"justify\">The Western myth of history consists in believing\u00a0that history is the horizon of intelligibility of reality, in such a way that when something is\u00a0historical\u00a0it is considered real, and if not, it is not. Panikkar is aware of the difficulty of a true religious dialogue between the East and the Christian West when one maintains that\u00a0only the historical is real. The historical world is not, however, the only human world. There are well developed cultures for which the myth of history does not hold sway\u201d (<em>La nueva inocencia<\/em>).<\/p><p align=\"justify\">RP recounts a meaningful anecdote: \u201cA Protestant minister in Vrind\u00e2vana told a Hindu, &#8216;Jesus of Nazareth existed. We know his history, his works, his life, miracles and all. He is an undeniable reality that still endures after twenty centuries&#8217;, adding with sarcasm &#8216;Whereas your Krishna is a legend, and, moreover, as such is a not very edifying \u2026 he <em>is a myth<\/em>; he didn\u2019t exist. He isn\u2019t real.&#8217; The good Vaishnava Hindu responded with a smile that Jesus is indeed a great and historic man, like Napolean \u2026 but nothing more. Whereas the Krishna of his heart and of his faith, on the other hand, is the truly reality, that which moves him.\u201d<\/p><p align=\"justify\">Neither the\u00a0<em>theory<\/em>\u00a0of evolution nor the\u00a0<em>myth <\/em>of history possesses the whole key to understanding reality. Furthermore, both represent an individualistic conception that is unfit for relational knowing, for knowing through love.<\/p><p align=\"justify\"><a href=\"https:\/\/raimon-panikkar.org\/?page_id=981\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>&lt;&lt; back<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HISTORY AS MYTH AND THE MYTH OF HISTORY \u201cHistory constitutes the myth par excellence of both Christianity and the predominant culture in the West\u201d (La nueva inocencia). \u201cHistory should not be idolized \u2026 A historical reality is simply a reality, but it is not synonymous with reality \u2026 When I say that history is the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2360","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/raimon-panikkar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/raimon-panikkar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/raimon-panikkar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raimon-panikkar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raimon-panikkar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2360"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/raimon-panikkar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5242,"href":"https:\/\/raimon-panikkar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2360\/revisions\/5242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/raimon-panikkar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}