The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)
by Joseph Campbell

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Book Reviews of The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)

Book Review: One giant intellectual leap for mankind.
Summary: 5 Stars

While our country was probing outer space, Campbell was travelling through the "wonderland of myth," and exploring the far-reaching relationship between mythology and comparative religion. He made some startling discoveries along the way. He writes, it "occurred to me that outer space is within inasmuch as the laws of outer space are within us; outer and inner space are the same" (p. 2). For Campbell, "the seat of the soul is there where the outer and inner worlds meet" (p. 5). "From the outer world," he writes, "the senses carry images to the mind, which do not become myth, however, until there transformed by fusion with accordant insights, awakened as imagination from the inner world of the body" (p. 5).

In this book, Campbell draws from Space-Age discoveries to demonstrate how mythology allows us to realize and participate in the "transcendence, infinity, and abundance" (p. xx) of religion. Although it shuttles through some familiar Campbell territory, THOU ART THAT, THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES, and THE POWER OF MYTH may offer a better introduction to his work. But for those readers interested in experiencing the relationship between mythology and religion in all its depth, this book should be considered one giant intellectual leap for mankind.

G. Merritt

Summary of The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)

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