Myth and Symbol - Jacob (Blog Post 8)

 I was reading a book by Fr. Alexander Shmemann on the Eucharist not too long ago and it reminded me of some of the themes of this class. In the book, he argues we have lost the meaning of the word symbol. We have turned symbols into just symbols, fanciful metaphors. His perspective is that a symbol is not a metaphor, but a vehicle by which reality is communicated. To say the Eucharist is a symbol is not to turn into something not real. It is not to deny that it really is the Body and Blood of Christ. It is, instead, to affirm its reality. The modern world has come to view Mythology and Symbol as mere metaphors. They do not communicate the real, but simply represent it. The older view of symbols and myth were that they represented higher spheres of existence than our ordinary concrete experience of the world.   

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