Introduction Oswalt first learned about the issues in “The Bible Among the Myths” while taking a class taught by Dennis Kinlaw at Asbury Theological Seminary. His interest in the subject has grown since with graduate study and his own classes which he taught. William F. Albright, his students, and G. Ernest Wright led the rethinking of the evolutionary paradigm within the philosophy of Idealism. Although they believed the differences between the ways the Israelites thought and their neighbor’s thoughts of reality caused no evolutionary explanation to show, today it is found that Israelite faith can be explained by evolutionary change. Scholars today say that it is no longer about the differences between the two, but more about the …show more content…

Oswalt uses Moby Dick as an example. The man, Ahab, and the whale are both seen as symbols of the story in this definition. The final type of definition is the phenomenological definition. In this definition, a common characteristic in the stories must be called a myth. Another example of this definitions states that the story tries to connect the real thing or issue with the symbol. To sum up all these definitions together, they all have the idea that all things are connected. They are not merely physically or spiritually connected to something like a tree, but they are the tree. Continuity does not concentrate on the particulars. If it did, then we would not all be connected. I would not be connected to a male if my being a female were to be concentrated on. The gods are described has being everything a human is. The Bible is all but a myth. God is not everything a human is. He does things we cannot repeat. Continuity: The Basis of Mythical Thinking The similarities between the Bible and other literature are not important, but the differences are. With continuity, the realms of humanity, deity, and nature are all connected and a part of each other. They are each equally the other in nature, but each have their own distinct role. It also means that symbol and reality are the same. Myths have two main focuses that are directly connected to the human fear of chaos. It wants to explain why things are as they are, and