Servants of the Map

Descending into the Mountains of Ignorance:  
An Open Life: Joseph Campbell in Conversation With Michael Toms 


This book is a compilation of conversations between Joseph Campbell, a man known for his knowledge of mythology, and journalist Michael Toms.  I find discussing this book is easiest by describing its parts.  It has four sections entitled: "Myth as Metaphor," "The God Denied," "The Social Contract," and "An Open Life."

In the first section, the duo discusses how myths' stories must be read - essentially without considering them literally or historically.  For instance, the story of the virgin birth shouldn't be taken literally (in fact it occurs in the mythology of multiple cultures), but as an expression of people's sense of the miraculous and, in turn, what that says about us.