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

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

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

Author: Joseph Campbell
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-01
ISBN: 1577312090
Number of pages: 148
Publisher: New World Library

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

"Mythology may, in a real sense, be defined as other people's religion," Joseph Campbell observes in his recently released book, THOU ART THAT (2001); "and religion may, in a sense, be understood as a popular misunderstanding of mythology" (p. 8). In this reissued collection of lectures delivered between 1981 to 1984 (originally published in 1986), Campbell travels through inner and outer space to explore that premise in greater depth. This 148-page book was the last book Campbell completed before his death in 1987, and as such, THE INNER REACHES OF OUTER SPACE may be read as the final frontier Campbell was exploring with his pioneering mind before his death.

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)

Developed from a memorable series of lectures delivered in San Francisco, which included a legendary symposium at the Palace of Fine Arts with astronaut Rusty Schweickart, Joseph Campbell?s last book explores the space age. Campbell posits that the newly discovered laws of outer space are actually at work within human beings as well and that a new mythology is implicit in this realization. He examines the new mythology and other questions in these essays which he described as "a broadly shared spiritual adventure."

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