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the magical ritual of the mythical age to counteract the tyrannical
rule of technology in our civilization. Yet no modem philosopher has
been so deeply influenced by the spirit of technology as Oskar Gold–
berg. For his interpretation of myth and ritual is given in a totally
unsentimental and unliterary language, that could be taken from
a textbook on electro-magnetism. Against his will he testifies to the
morphological congruity between magical ritualism and technical
"know-how." Unintentionally he explains to us a dark side of our
age: the nexus between the magical ritualism and the spiritual con–
formity of the masses in a technological society.
It speaks for the deep insight of Thomas Mann that he describes
the process of reason's self-annihilation by analyzing Goldberg's phil–
osophy of myth. It is, I think, of secondary importance that by 1947
he found Goldberg's highly conservative exegesis amusing and repul–
sive. It remains that he saved Goldberg's work from total oblivion
by incorporating long passages from
Die Wirklichkeit der Hebriier
into chapter XXVIII of
Doctor Faustus.
Out of context some of the
passages might strike the reader as comical, but in the context Gold–
berg's interpretation of the Pentateuch presents a serious challenge to
the accepted theological interpretation of it, be it orthodox, conserva–
tive or liberal. But as usual theology met the challenge-with silence.
III
There are basically only two possible interpretations of
myth: either you explain the language of myth as a specific symbolic
form, or you take the record of mythology as reality.
If
the realm
of myth is to be taken seriously then, Goldberg argues, it is not enough
to refer to "psychic realities," for such a solution evades the funda–
mental choice between phantasy and reality.
If
myths tell us about
real events then they testify to patterns that are contrary to the law
of nature in which we live. The universe is ruled by a uniform system
of natural laws that are valid everywhere and at every time. Only
if
this uniform system of natural laws
is
broken can a mythical event
occur.
The problem of the reality of the mythical event rests on an
ontological premise stressing the tension between spirit and matter.
Only under the most difficult conditions can spirit be made to unite
