Myth and Ritual in Christianity

“Our main object will be to describe one of the most incomparably beautiful myths that has ever flowered from the mind of man, or from the unconscious processes which shape it and which are in some sense more than man.… This is, furthermore, to be a description and not a history of Christian Mythology.… After description, we shall attempt an interpretation of the myth along the general lines of the philosophia perennis, in order to bring out the truly catholic or universal character of the symbols, and to share the delight of discovering a fountain of wisdom in a realm where so many have long ceased to expect anything but a desert of platitudes.” —from the Prologue

Alan Watts (1915-1973) was a renowned theorist and translator of Eastern philosophy, popularizing many concepts of Zen Buddhism in Western culture. His published works include The Legacy of Asia and Western Man; Behold the Spirit: A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion; Myth and Ritual in Christianity; Does It Matter?: Essays on Man’s Relation to Materiality; and In My Own Way: An Autobiography: 1915-1965.