mythicism means the scholarly opinion that the gospels are mythological expansions of historical data. It carries an Arena rating of 1299, earned across 75 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, mythicism ranks #1,852 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #2,708 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #3,139 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #4,198 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
Why “mythicism” is a great word
MYTHICISM — [Noun] The scholarly position that accounts, particularly of historical or religious figures and events, are mythological elaborations rather than strictly factual records, and, more broadly, the tendency to explain phenomena through myth. From myth (a traditional story) + -icism (forming nouns of practice or doctrine). In occasional use since the 1840s, with earliest use in Christian theology referencing the 'Mythic Theory' of D. F. Strauss (1835). Unlike historicism, which seeks causal explanation within a documented past, or rationalism, which explicitly privileges reason and evidence, mythicism listens for the echo of archetype in the chamber of event. It is the scholar tracing a savior’s birth to an older celestial drama, the populace seeing a god’s wrath in a plague, and the collective memory smoothing a rough life into a seamless legend—a quiet acknowledgment that our deepest truths are often not what happened, but what we needed to believe happened.
Etymology
From myth + -icism. In occasional use since the 1840s. The earliest use of the term was in Christian theology, in reference to the "Mythic Theory" of D. F. Strauss (1835). The more general sense appears from the 1870s.
noun
- The scholarly opinion that the gospels are mythological expansions of historical data.
- The habitual practice of attributing everything to mythological causes; superstition, the opposite of rationalism, or of realism.e.g.“1911 "The Californias were an inaccessible and mysterious Occident, invested in the imagination of most mankind with almost Babylonian mythicism." (R. G. Badger, Don Sagasto's daughter)”
- The creative potential for the creation of mythology; the faculty of mythopoeia.e.g.“1971 "Individual works are all potential myths, but it is their collective adoption that actualises - if such should be the case - their 'mythicism'." (Levi-Strauss)”
- The view that a certain figure or event is unhistorical or mythical, chiefly in the context of pseudo-scholarship.
- The view that a certain figure or event is unhistorical or mythical, chiefly in the context of pseudo-scholarship.; The opinion that Jesus of Nazareth did not exist.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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