Christmas: three kings and the power of myth

So, at the end of Christmas day, I listened to an interesting discussion on the BBC about the ‘three kings’ who allegedly visited the newly-born Jesus in Bethlehem, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. We’ve all heard the story, and its the basis for a number of our most popular Christmas hymns. What was fascinating is that they appear only briefly in the bible, and though early translations of the bible describe them as ‘wise men’, the earliest indications of their status suggest they were Magi, or sorcerers, an ancient Persian term used in Zoroastrianism, and eventually through various Greek linguistic channels to our word for magician (and another word, used for example by John Fowles for the title of his spectral novel The Magus).

Strikes me that, as always, its difficult to get any purchase on what is real, and what really went on all those years ago. Through all the social and cultural evolutions of the past century though, the need for religion remains as strong in people as it did centuries ago. In the west this is articulated in many different (and often agnostic) ways. Many, through either a belief in a god, or conspiracy theories (and sometimes both), desperately hope that someone is in charge of ‘all this’.

Personally, I doubt there is. Ideally, experiences and pathways are shaped individually (though people are often constrained by context), but what is intriguing in the field of international development is the contrast between an NGO workforce that is largely agnostic or atheist (apart from overtly religious agencies such as World Vision and Tear Fund), and the very religious societies in which they work, and for whom their interventions are designed to support. The demise of established religion is confined largely to the post-modern west. Elsewhere in the world (i.e. the 4.5bn or so people who live outside the west) religion still plays a major role in personal and societal behaviours and perceptions.

At times like Christmas (and other religions have similarly significant celebrations) we’re reminded essentially of the power of myth (to steal a phrase from Joseph Campbell). Myths are essentially ‘grand narratives’ that provide meaning for life’s Big Events (birth, where we’re from, where we’re going after death, and what happens in between). Barthes argues that modern narratives are as full of mythical elements as historic; and Marina Warner in a series of lectures from 1994 unpacked this idea even more. Our ‘modern’ world and its stories are as full of myth as Homer’s Odyssey from Ancient Greece.

SO, it seems that for us humans, stories providing meaning are as important now as they ever were. Whether they are actually true depictions of events is another question of course; and the fine line separating fundamentalists from, well, everyone else, is their certainty that myth is real (see Karen Armstrong’s The Battle for God for more on this).

Three Kings/Wise Men/Magi? Did they really exist? Maybe, maybe not. Symbolically – and mythically – their story slotted nicely into old testament prophecies (Isaiah, 60:3) describing the Messiah being worshiped by Kings. Now, in 2009 gift giving is a central part of Christmas in the Christian world; a throwback to the gifts brought by the Three Kings/Wise Men/Magi.

Never doubt the power of the story. Veracity is often irrelevant, but for shaping belief it is tireless.