Time and myth /
John S. Dunne.
- Notre Dame [Ind.]: University of Notre Dame Press, 1975, c1973.
- 128 pages ; 21 cm.
Reprint of the ed. published by Doubleday, New York. Based on the Thomas More Lectures delivered at Yale, Feb. 1971.
Includes bibliographical references.
Time and the Story of Death -- Lifetime and the Life Story -- The Moment and the Story of God
Is life story of adventure, a journey, a voyage of discovery? Or is it something simpler like the story of a child playing by the sea? If it is the story of an adventure, a journey, a voyage of discovery, we are in a story where time is all important. Our journey may in fact be a quest of life like that of Gilgamesh, carrying us to the boundaries of life in an effort to conquer death. Or it may be a return from the boundaries, a journey through the otherworld, through the land that lies on the other side of death, carrying us like Dante from a hell through a purgatory to paradise. Or it may be an exploration of this world, carrying us like the Odysseus of Nikos Kazantzakis to the poles of the earth where we meet death in ice and darkness. However we tell it our adventure appears to be somehow a story of death. Within the story of death there we meet death in ice and darkness. However we tell it, our adventure appears to be somehow a story of death. Within the story of death there is a story of love like that of Odysseus and Penelope or that of Dante and Beatrice. And within the story of love and death, or containing them, there is a story of the world. We enter the story of the world in childhood, that of love in youth, and that of death in manhood.