that they bear toward the tradition. At times, they come into contact with elements of the tradition which really resonate with their essential selves--i.e. with their *higher* or *transcendent* selves, in which they ceased to believe when they rejected the tradition. Such moments are very disconcerting to those whose conscience has-- perhaps for very good reasons--been turned against Christianity. They imagine that to understand and identify with a part, implies the truth and, thus the necessary acceptance of, the whole as a literal, historical reality. Their heart, for a moment, leaps within them at the prospect of embracing again that which they forsook with such agony, but a moments reflection suffices to recall their reasons for rejecting it in the first place.{11} What they fail to realize is the possibility that a myth, however false when taken at face value, is not merely a lie. Rather it is a story that is (or may be) false on the outside, but true on the inside.{12} It is my opinion that the Bible in general, and the New Testament in particular, conveys such a myth, and that insofar as our consciousness, on a very fundamental level, has been informed by that myth, we would do well to let go of our resentment, opening our minds to the possibility of learning from it once again. In other words, let us not throw the baby out with the bath water. To be sure, the water is dirty--at certain times and places extremely dirty. Nevertheless, those who have a real affinity for this tradition--often reflected in their resentment toward it--are doing violence to themselves by refusing to take another look. It is in this spirit, then, that I offer in what follows an alternative approach to the Christian myth--one which is intended, practically speaking, to captivate the imagination, bringing it into the service of our essential self, without, however, violating our reason. Its chief theoretical advantages are that it avoids the problem of e...
