The Hero with a Thousand Faces Spirituality Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Page.Paragraph)

Quote #4

The good news, which the World Redeemer brings and which so many have been glad to hear, zealous to preach, but reluctant, apparently, to demonstrate, is that God is love, that He can be, and is to be, loved, and that all without exception are his children. (146.1)

This is the central message, with a few modifications, of most religions in the world. It's a very simple equation, and yet so hard to achieve, in part because we're so obsessed with our differences and the surface details that drive us apart.

Quote #5

We and that protecting father are one. This is the redeeming insight. That protecting father is every man we meet. And so it must be known that, though this ignorant, limited, self-defending, suffering body may regard itself as threatened by some other—the enemy—that one too is the God. (148.2)

Campbell's not saying, "do what your dad says" here. But he comes from a Freudian school of thought and Freud was big on confronting the authoritarian figures that hold you down: symbolic fathers if not literal ones.

Quote #6

If the God is a tribal, racial, national, or sectarian archetype, we are the warriors of his cause; but if he is a lord of the universe itself, we then go forth as knowers to whom all men are brothers. And in either case, the childhood parent images and ideas of "good" and "evil' have been surpassed. (149.1)

Notice how Campbell eliminates the notion of conflict when it comes to spirituality. We can't fight those who are different; we have to understand them. (Of course, that means different people have to play by the same rules, but nobody said this process was painless.)