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Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor | 
 enlarge | Author: Joseph Campbell
Publisher: New World Library
Category: Book
List Price: $20.00
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Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 57723
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.9
ISBN: 1577312023
Dewey Decimal Number: 230
EAN: 9781577312024
ASIN: 1577312023
Publication Date: October 10, 2001
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Product Description
Thou Art That is a compilation of previously uncollected essays and lectures by Joseph Campbell that focus on the Judeo-Christian tradition. Here Campbell explores common religious symbols, reexamining and reinterpreting them in the context of his remarkable knowledge of world mythology. According to Campbell, society often confuses the literal and metaphorical interpretations of religious stories and symbols. In this collection, he eloquently reestablishes these metaphors as a means to enhance spiritual understanding and mystical revelation. With characteristic verve, he ranges from rich storytelling to insightful comparative scholarship. Included is editor Eugene Kennedy's classic interview with Campbell in The New York Times Magazine, which brought the scholar to the public's attention for the first time.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 Ditto on the Caveat Emptor August 21, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This short collection by the prolific, Joseph Campbell is disjointed, incomplete and misleading. That's probably due to the heavy handed editing mentioned a previous reviewer. The selections are skewed heavily toward traditional western religion, particularly, Christianity.
Most of Campbell's followers understand that his religious inclinations were more in line with Eastern religion and philosophy. Campbell did not believe in a personal God and made that fact well known throughout his life. Yet the editor appears to go out of his way to imply that Campbell had some sort of bedside conversion or Christian revelation just before he died. Ridiculous! It difficult to imagine just how this editor was able to arrange this work. There are many great books written by Joseph Campbell, but this is not one of them.
 The one and only Joseph Campbell February 7, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Joe Campbell is truly the master. In a world full of phonys, he was the original. A true innovator in his field. I have never been so excited about reading an authors work. The man was a real genius. I recommend this and every Campbell work to anyone.
Awesome November 7, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Joseph Campbell puts things in such vivid perspective. It is good to have him helping us with images and metaphors like he does. While readers wouldn't stand for the likes of French Philosopher Paul Ricoeur on the subject of Myth, Campbell guides the bulk of general readership into the density of this complex subject making it seem so simple. And that is why this book is so powerful. Though I did my doctoral work in Ricoeur, I loved persuing Campbells "Thou Art That" as a bit of light reading that encourages me to keep my head when I'm forming silly conclusions based on conjecture rather than myth and reason. Powerful, plainly written, a must read for any aspiring student of theology, philosophy, and interpretation.
Caveat Emptor January 13, 2004
127 out of 147 found this review helpful
Campbell was quite prolific; why would he have published such a very short book? He didn't, actually, it was put together posthumously. Understanding the editor is key to understanding this book. I found odd that such a short book could nonetheless be so incoherent and incomprehensible. After researching its editor, Eugene C. Kennedy, it made sense. What the publishers of this book don't tell you (don't want you to know?) is that Eugene C. Kennedy was a Catholic Maryknoll priest for 22 years, teaches at the Jesuit Loyola University, and is the author of such classics of humanist mythological studies as "Would You Like to be a Catholic?" and "Cardinal Bernadin's Stations of the Cross". This information puts "Thou Art That" into perspective. The book starts out with (ex-)Father Kennedy's preposterous assertion that Campbell had some kind of deathbed conversion. Apparently Campbell's wife put Campbell in a Catholic hospital, then claimed that her husband had spent his entire life studying spirituality, mythology, and archetypes without ever once in his life "experiencing emotionally" their meaning... until he saw some kind of Catholic religious image before he died. This sounds like wishful thinking on the part of the "Doctrine of the Faith" department. I very much doubt this happened; the assertion puts Campbell's entire life's work into question. What kind of person could write about something his whole life without ever experiencing it emotionally? Reading Kennedy's selection of Campbell's works is like reading Thomas Aquinas's selection of Arisotle's works: the result is a confused, disjointed mess, because the material has been gerrymandered in a sometimes desperate attempt to make the author more palatable to Catholic theology. It appears that very little of Campbell's work suits Kennedy's purposes, which would explain why the book is both so short and so fragmentary. At the very least, such an editing misrepresents the author. Here's some Latin that the editor should have shared with you: "caveat emptor".
An Encyclopedic Knowledge of Mythology September 22, 2002
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
Joseph Campbell is a brilliant thinker with an encyclopedic knowledge of mythology. THOU ART THAT, however, is filled with dense material and is not an easy read without some prior familiarity with Campbell's work - such as his TV interviews with Bill Moyers.I am also beginning to read books by some of the Jesus Seminar scholars and I find that Campbell's writings are somewhat similar while his interests are much broader in scope.
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