Myth and Ritual In Christianity

by Alan W. Watts

“Our main object will be to describe one of the most incomparably beautiful myths that has ever flowered from the mind of man, or from the unconscious processes which shape it and which are in some sense more than man.… This is, furthermore, to be a description and not a history of Christian Mythology.… After description, we shall attempt an interpretation of the myth along the general lines of the philosophia perennis, in order to bring out the truly catholic or universal character of the symbols, and to share the delight of discovering a fountain of wisdom in a realm where so many have long ceased to expect anything but a desert of platitudes.” —from the Prologue

Genres: Religion, Christianity, Mythology, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Esoterica, Metaphysics

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Alan Wilson Watts was a British philosopher, writer and speaker, who held both a Master's in Theology and a Doctorate of Divinity. Famous for his research on comparative religion, he was best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Asian philosophies for a Western audience. He wrote over 25 books and numerous articles on subjects such as personal identity, the true nature of reality, higher consciousness, the meaning of life, concepts and images of God and the non-material pursuit of happiness. In his books he relates his experience to scientific knowledge and to the teachings of Eastern and Western religion and philosophy.

Reviews

[Margaret Langstaff · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, and very importantly, "myth" does NOT mean "false" in the context of this book. Quite the contrary. It means a higher, the highest, truth. Watts' book is in the same lineage as Joseph Campbell's THE MASKS OF GOD (4 vols.).

Having said that, onto brass tacks. Though I don't have time to write a full blown, decent review of this very intelligent, provocative work, I want to go on record (in kind of a public service announcement)about it by giving it a top rating and to recommend it to readers who often feel uncomfortable with dogma and theology, whatever the flavor of their "faith" might be.

I read it the first time over 25 years ago in a Literature graduate seminar on myth and mytho-poetic thought. It stunned me then, spun me around, and when I picked it up again last week it had the same startling, spiritually expanding effect on me.

Watts' erudition is amazing and sound (I've studied this area/field myself for many years) and rather than trying to beat you on the head with theses, he instead alludes, connotes, and teases out of the narratives of the Bible and Catholic tradition (symbols, rituals etc) pivotal points, pivots really, through which we are able to perceive unity in diversity and sense the divine nature underlying all things.

I have the highest regard for the usefulness of this book in breathing life back into what has become mostly dead and deadened nay-saying, finger-pointing, hateful and hating, "Christianity" today.

This is not for the fundamentalist or literalist, the narrow-minded (fearful, insecure) but for those with larger sensibilities who already intuit the luminous coherence in life and the universe, sense the numinous and sacred in every day life. It will take such people even further along the path toward reconciliation of apparent dualisms and contradictions into a symphonic awareness of the wholeness, seamlessness, the IT-ness (or "I Am who Am") of existence and consciousness

Below is one of my own contributions to this worthy cause. It deflates in order to inspire, teases and taunts, dares. It's good for you. Readers either love it or hate it. THAT means: I hit the right nerve at the right time.

[Yvonne · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British-born philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience." (Wikipedia) Also a former Episcopal priest, although in Myth and Ritual in Christianity, I often wondered if I had that wrong and he had instead been a Catholic priest!

As I have been reading the book in the last few days, I have wondered how I was going to encapsulate what the book is. Then in the last pages, Watts did it for me himself:

"As soon as one gets used to looking at the Christian images from this outside in point of view, it becomes obvious that, in this way, they MAKE SENSE AS THEY NEVER DID BEFORE (emphasis mine). God returns to his temple, the heart, the centre of all things -- of man, of time, of space. Heaven is no longer in the place of Hell, the "outer darkness" of the most distant spaces and far-off times, but appears in the place of the most intense reality -- the now. Christ actually rises from the dead, and is revealed in this moment, and is no more locked up in the tomb of the remote past, in the dead letter of the written Gospels. The Mass is for once effectively sacrificed, for the Body of Christ, the church, is really willing to be broken, finding no further need to hold itself together with definitions and claims. The Faith becomes actual faith, which is self-surrender, as distinct from all anxious clinging to dogmatic rocks and doctrinal idols (!!). The authority of the Church becomes self evident, which is to say that the church actually realizes authority, so that there is no more necessity to prove it, to convince itself, by exaggerated proselytism and preposterous claims of spiritual monopoly. The dispensation of the Law, in which virtue is forced, actually gives way to the dispensation of Grace, in which virtue happily "happens", and is not grotesquely imitated.
So understood, the marvelous symbols of Christianity might still -- one is tempted to say, might begin to -- have a message for Western man, that anxious and restless eccentric who has "no time" because he has reduced his present to an abstract dividing line between past and future, and who confuses his very self with a past which is no more and a future which is not yet. He, too, needs to be turned outside-in, to live in the real world which he thinks is abstract, instead of in the abstract world which he takes for reality. And for this he must know that the true place of Bethlehem, Calvary and Olivet is no more in history, and that Death, the Second Advent, and Heaven are not in a time to come. His "sin", his missing of the point, can only be forgiven if he repents -- turns away -- from his past as from the future which it implies, and returns again to his Creator, the present reality from which he "exists". Whereupon the life which had seemed momentary would be found momentous, and that present which had seemed to be no time at all would be found to be eternity."

And so I appreciate this book because it has enabled me to return to Church as the Church is not telling the preposterously unbelievable, but is telling indeed the old, old story.

[Marti Martinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book more than 6 years ago as a course at the St. Alban Liberal Catholic Seminary. It was absolutely revelatory then and has been so with each of my two subsequent readings. It would take far more space than this Review box to do a proper review (as another has pointed out), and I can only echo that "This is not your mother's catechism." And thank goodness for that! The deeply rooted aspects of the collective unconscious, the "dignity of myth" (Watts' term), and generally unacknowledged history makes this a fascinating read for the open-minded believer and, even more so, for the atheist/agnostic.

I do disagree with Watts on one conclusion only as it pertains to me; it is, however, probably generally true for most people.

"[T]he Christ of Catholic dogma is a far more powerful conception than the rationalized Jesus of history".

Perhaps I am not a Christ-ian but a Jesus-ian. I definitely prefer liturgical, high-church Christianity, but I am simply not in tune with my subconscious for Watts' approach to be fully incorporated into myself. This is the reason I also suggest "Moses and Monotheism" by Freud and "Jesus for the Non-religious" by Spong.

This book is for the brave and curious, and they will not be disappointed.

[Owen Thaxton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorough analysis of Christianity in the mid-1950's, Watts' comprehension of history and profound understanding of spirituality allow for an engaging story that dissects a religion which has more persuasion over Western thought than we would care to admit.

On many levels, Christianity is a deep and powerful source of spirituality, promising eternal hope for those who are faithful but condemning those who choose not to believe in a religion formed 2000 years ago which claims to have intimate knowledge of the creation of the universe to an eternal suffering in Hell. Yet, through it all, Watts' amazing powers of objectivity, filtered through Eastern spiritualities such as Buddhism and Hinduism, is a deeply loving thing, often given to extolling Christian virtues while detailing the ceremonies which construct these "big feelings" inside Christian faithfuls. (though I'm sure conservative Christians would tell you otherwise) When the mystery of the faith, its foundations in a philosophy of thought which denies belief in anything but that which it has mandated as well the actions to enforce these principles on all, regardless of deviance from their authority, is explained on a minute, practical level, clarity settles on the reader.

"...the perfectly good God necessarily creates the perfectly evil Devil by way of unconscious compensation, which, just because it is unconscious, is the one thing that theology cannot admit." (page 224)


This book is not only revelatory for those who desire a deeper understanding to the pomp and ritual of the Christian religion, but those who question the morality and ethics of Western society, long built on the cornerstones of organized religion.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was truly eye-opening! I've read several of Watts's books on Buddhism (The Spirit of Zen and Zen and the Beat Way) and value his thoughts on the subject of religion. This book showed me the beauty of Christianity through an in-depth discussion of its myths and rituals. It is a very dense book and rather hard to get through because it is packed with so much information. But I was fascinated to see how closely Christianity resembles other religions. Watts gives many, many connections that are truly mind-blowing. I feel like I need to read it again to fully absorb everything it has to offer. A must read for any student of comparative religion.

[Dylan Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read to fully understand Christianity (especially Catholicism); written with a comparitive approach juxtaposing Eastern religious traditions.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating exploration of Christian stories and rituals from Watts' perspective, very influenced by perennial philosophy. The connection between the Christian stories and the stories of other cultures is fascinating, just as the theory of perennial philosophy's thread of story that weaves through all stories and religions is fascinating.

Watts traced the perennial lines and looked at the significance and meanings of celebrating Advent and Easter when Christians do, how in the northern hemisphere the seasons mirror the story and the story the seasons, so that the seasons are an aid in the storytelling -- they help the story be felt, experienced in present time. Then, in perennial philosophy fashion, the smaller story of the seasons, told in the stories of religion (in the liturgy of the church especially) is a micro-story of the story of a person's life in sum, the birth to death sum of it, but also a story of cycles, seasons in a persons life, the repetition of many dyings and risings through experiences and tragedy, goodness and new life.

Such is how Watts' book unfolds. It's fascinating to see it was first published in 1953, in the wake of so much Christian church-going as baby boomer families took to the good of their society. Watts' book comes across as an invitation to see the deeper story inside the traditions, for the way people went about traditions in those days (whether true or legend now) was said to be rather mindless, more about doing good by what was socially acceptable. The deeper meanings could be missed, Watts is saying.

Watts' own eastern interests cloud the waters here, but are no less fascinating to hear. He's quick to interpose elements of the eternal now into the mythological readings, which felt like a stretch, but no less interesting to read. The comparison of religious narratives across time and regions still feels more linear with regards to time, though a cyclic linear flow, a line that keeps drawing a spiral that circles around on itself, but isn't the same circle time and again. There's movement, there's remembrance and story, even an anticipation of something to come, as the stories tell. Watts, again, clouds that flow of time concept, but remarks that perhaps that flow of time is the greatest illusion and that all the perennial story is about now, which is eternal.

There's much to appreciate about Watts' approach here, and as a liturgical, Christian person, this exploration of the seasonal elements and nuances are interesting, even if there's not always agreeable. He does a good job capturing the Christian story, as told from a medieval Christian (his goal with the book, though I think a lot of the medieval perspective misses many marks biblically), before he relates it to other perennial narratives or elements.

There remains one question for me: what if something did in fact happen historically, as told by Christians, and though the Christian narrative can surely relate to perennial concepts that continue to happen in present-time, there was something that rippled in time, that God intended to communicate something rather direct, something that can be told again and again as the seasons unfold, something that has a trajectory of sorts? What if?...

Reading Watts, you'll see him dance around this historicity of Christianity. A history that has indeed been clouded with much myth, but nonetheless readable today.

[James R]

This was written prior to the changes in the 1960s when the Catholic Mass was abandoned and a new liturgy was created. If you'd like to see the Catholic Mass prior to these changes, you'll need to visit a "Traditional Catholic" group, such as CMRI, SSPX, or any number of sectarian compounds such as St. Gertrude's in Ohio, Bishop Sanborn sect in Florida, or any number of groups recommended by the "Traditio" website. You can still find independent bishops & priests who do these things in garages & hotels around the world.

A focus on the ceremony alone has little value. What is termed "Christianity" has a complex history, and much of this was only uncovered after this book was written. Scholarship especially since 1990 has really hurt the Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church really only has a single dogma: obey the living Pope. All these ceremonies & rituals really just fall under their sole dogma. You can see this with the changes of Vatican II, the whole world immediately abandoned what was done before, because the only core dogma is obedience. Any good Catholic will tell you that you must 100% accept the decisions of the Pope, no matter what you think. Otherwise, you're outside of the Catholic Church.

If you want to put your head in the sand and focus on externals, go right ahead, but the Roman Catholic Church really became a dead end by the 4th century when it became the official religion of the Roman Empire. What became the Catholic Mass didn't exist prior to the 4th century, and bits & pieces were added for centuries, with the high mark coming after the 12th century with the additions by the University of Paris theologians & all the vestments & Gothic cathedrals. Most of this was added to attract pagans & to satisfy emperors. Finally, Council of Trent created a kind of militaristic church with fixed missals & rubrics, and it became this exact & rigid thing. While repetition & rigidity does have its place, so does chaos & change.

Global human consciousness often works by trying various paths that may lead to dead ends. While I do think the Catholic Mass is something totally unique and good in some aspects, these rituals & way of life must fit into a certain context & way of life, and the rituals can't be an end in themselves. The problem is that in the Middle Ages, people started to see the Mass as all that mattered, and their way of life started to diverge from the liturgical practices. The rituals of the Catholic Mass may revive in a future form, but only if human consciousness can fix the way of life that went wrong as the Catholic Mass was developing.

[Shawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inside is exactly what is says on the tin. Alongside detailed instructions on how to perform certain rituals is Watts' commentary on the mystical meanings. Also included where appropriate are the distinct similarities to be found in Eastern religions, bolstering on of the main themes of this work that through a shared unconscious Man consistently dreams up and creates the same myths, and to understand and benefit from these one must throw off theological interpretations that obfuscate the innermost truths.
I always welcome and enjoy Watts' work because of his ever present crusade against the ego always knocks me out of my wearying fugues of anxiety. But this work is finely tuned to its subject and therefore I can't recommend it to everyone. It would be a good read for someone having a crisis of faith or who may be curious about Eastern Religion.

[winifer skattebol · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like Ram Dass, Alan Watts was a druggie with lots of hippie, New Agey followers. While it is admirable to try to draw parallels among world religions and show how all ritual practice actually iterates various inner states, I would accuse the author of "analysis paralysis." He so over-interprets everything that it's ridiculous. And he tries to evince profundity in what are really very simple concepts. I skimmed the book because his arguments got so heady and tiresome. It really leaves you wondering why human history found time and place for all of these pseudo-spiritual shenanigans, and how people could have been persuaded to believe in them. If he belonged to any scholarly fraternity, it was the parodic "Eta Plata Krappa."

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alan Watts writes that non-dualism is the proper (or at least a legitimate) approach to interpreting traditional Christian myth and liturgy.

The past and future are dead and not real, says Watts, and Life springs forth from and occurs only in the eternal present. Thus the Church teaches that the Mass is not a re-enactment of Christ's death, but it's literal re-occurence in the present moment. The host is no mere symbol, but a literal incarnation, eaten now to unite man and diety in the present.

I don't quite buy it. But I like it anyway and I think Watts reinterpretation has value.

[Jessica Howser · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great refresher on the catholic mass and a fun look at its symbolism. watts is a scholar of buddhist and hindu religions and yet also an anglican priest. i bet he did a bang-up dramatic mass. it’s redeemed christianity for me, a little.

there’s pictures and illustrations and a glossary. would you believe he drew all the illustrations? charming.

[Aileen Bernadette Urquhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonder full book. Very hard to get in to, but I got there and was bowled over.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Makes me want to start my journey in the Christian faith all over again.

[Mrod · Rating 4 out of 5]

despite being raised a Catholic i had no idea so much meaning was packed into the Biblical stories and rituals. Watts is one of my favorite thinkers and writers

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

WATTS INTERPRETS THE SYMBOLISM OF THE CHRISTIAN CALENDAR

Alan Wilson Watts (1915-1973) was a British-born philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as a popularizer of Eastern philosophy. He and his then-wife left England for America in 1938 on the eve of WWII, and he became an Episcopal priest---but he left the priesthood in 1950 and moved to California, where he became a cult figure in the Beat movement of the 1950s and later. He wrote many popular books, such as 'The Spirit of Zen,''The Meaning of Happiness,' 'Easter: Its Story and Meaning,' 'Behold the Spirit,' 'The Wisdom of Insecurity,' 'Nature, Man and Woman,' 'This Is It,' 'Psychotherapy East & West,' 'The Two Hands of God,' 'Beyond Theology,' and his autobiography, 'In My Own Way.'

He wrote in the Preface to this 1953 book, "the 'Books of Hours' contained... the seasonal ritual of the Work of God whereby... the Catholic Church relives the life of Time's redeemer and creator. And this cyclic re-enactment is the surest sign that the Christ-story is not primarily an event which happened some two thousand years ago, but something perennial... beyond all time...

"[T]his book... will present Christianity as the ritual reliving of the Christ-story through the seasonal cycle of the ecclesiastical year... enabling us to study [Christianity] as a living organism rather than a dead fossil. Furthermore, it is the perfect form in which to discuss Christianity as a process for the 'redemption of time,' the dimension of life which is so strangely problematic for Western man."

He says, "It is of great interest that the Matthew story works out a typological correspondence between the life of Christ and the history of Israel. For the flight into Egypt corresponds to the Egyptian captivity of the tribes of Israel, while Joseph, like Joseph the son of Jacob, is a dreamer of prophetic dreams. Furthermore, the whole Gospel is divided into five books corresponding to the five books of the Pentateuch, since the Gospel is to be the New Law superseding the Old Law of Moses. Likewise the great Sermon of Christ is given, not, as in Luke, on a plain, but on a mountain as upon Mount Sinai Moses received the Old Law from God." (Pg. 125)

He points out, "that which was bread and wine becomes, in substance, the veritable Body and Blood of Christ... Bread and wine are respectively the staple food and drink of men, and thus the substance of human life. Yet before they become food, the wheat and the grapes undergo a transformation: they are ground and crushed, baked and fermented, and in this they typify the strangest and most problematic aspect of life itself.

"For every form of life exists at the expense of some other form, the whole living world constituting a colossal cannibalism, a holocaust in which life continues only at the cost of death. Man lives because of the sacrifice of the wheat and the vine, and he, in his own turn, is a sacrifice to the birds and the worms, or the bacilli which effect his death... the Mass represents a true sacrifice... The reason why the new Christ-Sacrifice redeems and the old Passover-Sacrifice does not is that the victim of the former is WILLING, the performer of a self-sacrifice, at once Priest and Offering." (Pg. 146-147)

He suggests, "For the life of Heaven is by no means to be that of a disembodied soul floating through a radiant sky... God will create beauty upon beauty, wonder upon wonder, playing for ever with his children around the Tree of Life as if it were perpetually Christmas Day. This is a beautiful conception---so long as one does not think or feel about it too deeply, so long as one takes it just as a glimpse and then turns away. It can, perhaps, be supposed that the divine omnipotence will arrange some miracle to prevent the terrible monotony of everlasting pleasure, and to make it possible for the mind to accumulate memories indefinitely without going mad." (Pg. 226-227)

This is probably (along with his Easter book) Watts' most "Christian" book; while those who prefer his later "Eastern" books will probably not care for it, those interested in Christian symbolism and ritual may be very pleased with it.

[Martin Hassman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ke knize jsem přistupoval skepticky. Říkal jsem si: “Alan Watts a křesťanství? Vždyť je expert na filosofie východu.” Kniha mě nakonec příjemně potěšila. Watts do hloubky rozebírá některé stavební kameny křesťanství a používá k tomu své zkušenosti s východními filosofiemi. Výsledek je zajímavý a inspirující.