The Journey of the Hero: Archetypes of Earthly Adventure and Spiritual Passage in 1 Nephi Tod R ...

25 Pages·2012·42.2 MB·English

Title The Journey of the Hero: Archetypes of Earthly
Adventure and Spiritual Passage in 1 Nephi
Author(s) Tod R Harris
Reference Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 6/2 (1997): 43–66.
ISSN 1065-9366 (print), 2168-3158 (online)
Abstract Study of the varied metaphorical levels of the Book
of Mormon continues to yield new insights into the
message and meaning of that book. Several prominent
typological readings of aspects of the Book of Mormon
have been published, but despite calls for such an
effort, little inquiry into its possible archetypal levels,
or what has been called “the mythic dimension” of the
book, has yet been undertaken. As an initial attempt at
such an endeavor, I compare certain events described
in 1 Nephi with the elements of one prominent mythic
archetype, the hero’s journey, as elucidated by Joseph
Campbell in his famous The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
A strong correlation between the hero’s journey arche-
type and the events from 1 Nephi is intriguing and
seems to demonstrate at least the presence of mythic
patterns in the Book of Mormon. This leads to some
preliminary conclusions about what the apparent pres-
ence of such patterns might signify.