Creative Mythology (The Masks of God, Volume 4) [Paperback]

An updated edition of the beloved final volume in Joseph Campbell’s monumental Masks of God series,Creative Mythologytells the inner story of humanity’s entire philosophical, spiritual, and artistic history since the Dark Ages, ultimately positioning each of us as the creator of our own mythology.

In this fourth and final volume in The Masks of God series — Joseph Campbell’s major work of comparative mythology — the preeminent mythologist looks at the birth of the modern, individualistic mythology as it developed in Europe beginning in the twelfth century. Tracing the disintegration of orthodox tradition up through the radical art and philosophies of the late twentieth century, Campbell arrives at an astonishing insight: modern humans are the first to witness thecreationof myth and position themselves as the center of their own mythology.

Upon completingCreative Mythology, he wrote that his work on The Masks of God had confirmed his long-held belief in the unity of humanity, “which has everywhere unfolded in the manner of a single symphony, with its themes announced, developed, amplified and turned about, distorted, reasserted, and, today, in a grandfortissimoof all sections sounding together, irresistibly advancing to some kind of mighty climax, out of which the next great movement will emerge.”

Updated with new illustrations that support Campbell’s perceptive analysis of human cultural evolution, this new edition ofCreative Mythologyremains as vital, revelatory, and urgent as the original did upon publication more than half a century ago.
USJoseph Campbellwas an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. He was born in New York City in 1904, and from early childhood loved to read about American Indians and frequently visited the American Museum of Natural HislS(