Foreword: On the Occasion of the One Hundredth Birthday of Walter Friedrich Otto (Friedrich Georg Jünger)
Part of my translation of "Theophany: The Spirit of Ancient Greek Religion" by Walter F. Otto
June 22, 1974
Theophany is an open and unequivocal confession of pagan piety, a piety that requires no sacred scripture, is non-dogmatic, knows nothing of redemption and resurrection, and is unfamiliar with an omnipotent creator god. Instead, it recognizes a plethora of divine and semi-divine beings. Such a perspective has proven offensive to many. Not only to the early Christians and their theologians, for whom paganism could not be a matter of indifference. So they relegated it to the realm of demonic and magical powers. For Christians, inclusion of pagan piety within their narratives of religious history is rendered impossible, as is evident in the recent phase of Protestant theology and its attempt to demythologize faith. Myth and word are intrinsically united, and not only within the context of the Greek language and religion. The purging of all things mythical from texts and from life deprives modern man in ways that become apparent when we open our eyes to the starkness and lack of imagery in the modern world.
The primary inquiry to be undertaken concerns the relationship between mythology and mythos, that is to say, the scholarly investigation of a domain that has nothing to do with science. The merit of classical studies can solely rest in the faithful and precise reproduction of sources and their interpretation, rather than in interpretations and explanations that originate from entirely different domains, thus necessitating distortions. Neither does an aesthetic appreciation of myth, which divorces it from its foundation, suffice, nor does symbolization, which substitutes meanings for essence. Equally misguided is the naturalization of myth, which eradicates the divine and comprehends it as a natural process and natural force, seeking causal and teleological explanations for it. The hallmark of these endeavors is the reduction of myths to animistic, fetishistic, evolutionary, psychological, and psychoanalytical origins. This includes personification, which is nothing more than a regressive form of depersonalization.
Certain aspects of such interpretations might be astutely designed—acumen increases where sense diminishes—yet they all represent externally imposed constructs. They not only misconceive the myth but work toward its annihilation. They bypass the existence of the Gods, their world, and their sovereignty, from which the Homeric epics, lyric poetry, tragedy, temple architecture, and the sculpted figures of Gods and heroes have emerged.
“The divine,” as Otto states, “can only be experienced.” Experience implies that Gods cannot be invented, conceived, or imagined. Yet, in what kind of experience does the divine manifest? Not every experience suffices for that purpose. Such an experience already contains devotion, without which there could be no encounter. Such a relationship, founded on offerings and gifts, cannot be coerced by willpower or knowledge. There is nothing coercive within it. The Muses approach only the musically inclined individual, the Horae only the one who follows their course and their governance throughout the year, and the Charites bestow their blessings only upon those who can enter into their dance.
Throughout history, only the poetically attuned individual has had a path and access to the Gods. Without rhythm, whose divine origin was certainly known to the Greeks, without its movement, which is festive, everything remains mute. Without rhythm, there is no celebration, without it, all festivity withers.
Friedrich Georg Jünger