Chapter 6 - Mythopoiesis and Difference

Summary

The mythic dimension of the cultural operations of human being represent a vital location for understanding not only the processes of mythopoiesis, but also the theological dynamics of cultural change. The questions of how mythic sensibilities encounter one another and how mythic sensibilities change as a result of such encounters shed light on what we mean by culture, human ways of being, as a participation in the life and activity of God. In what follows, we will observe what is meant, specifically, by the encounter of mythic sensibilities, as distinct from the other dynamics of the flux of culture. Given Milbank’s insights into the origins of the mythos of secular modernity, we will continue to engage with his analysis of mythic difference. By a close examination of his use of mythos in Theology and Social Theory, however, it becomes clear that his agonistic understanding of difference cannot finally serve a Christian theology of mythopoiesis and understanding of difference.