Western Culture and the Saga

I had a major realization not long ago.  For many years I’ve contemplated Christianity and tried to understand it.  I have to admit that Christianity has been one of the most difficult things for me to understand.  It is based on shaky texts from 2,000 years ago which have inconsistencies and probably many embellishments and fictions woven into them.  Why would someone choose to follow such a religion, and with the level of commitment which many do?

Even if one accepts the main premise – itself admittedly difficult to believe – that Jesus was the Son of God – it’s still difficult to follow because this person is so distant in the past and the legacy of his actual life and teachings are so obscured.

But then I came across something very interesting one day. I highly recommend to sit somewhere quiet, allow yourself to become fully still and composed, and watch this video fullscreen:

This creation of a hypothetical ancient performance of the Epic of Gilgamesh – it just immediately pulls you, very strongly. As a classical musician I am deeply aware of this pull. I have known it intimately all my life and have associated it with music.

But after watching this video I began to connect how this deep feeling is not just exclusive to music – it is connected to another ancient tradition which in its own, fragmented way still persists in our age – the saga. The epic tale.

And when I thought about Christianity in this light, suddenly it all made sense to me. Christianity isn’t about some historical figure Jesus, nor the particulars of his teachings – it is about the Saga of Christ. And that’s why, even when it’s known that the ancient biblical texts are not particularly accurate in many respects, it doesn’t matter.

Take a matter in point: Usually the most favorite gospel of people is the Gospel of John. That gospel is considered to be the least accurate. It diverges clearly with the synoptic gospels and was also thought to have been written much later. But that doesn’t matter. Because John is a great story. It carries the spirit of the Saga of Jesus Christ better than any other gospels.

And, making this connection about Christianity, suddenly also a whole new connection occurred to me as well: Listen to the great religious masses composed by Bach: The Mass in B Minor. The Passion of St. Matthew. These are not just works intended to accompany liturgy services in a church. They are epic works of musical saga extraordinaire. All great works of music – even purely instrumental ones – bear a mark of a saga. They tell a deep story that moves your heart, that goes to the very core of our existence because musical notes can also tell a story. Clearly this is true for works of literature as well, for theater, and films and television dramas.

When you watch this striking video made by Peter Pringle it makes you realize that the saga is deeply ingrained into human culture. It would be very difficult, if not completely impossible, to separate the saga from all that is great in western history (and by West I definitely include the ancient lands of Sumeria, Babylonia, etc.)

The human mind – the human soul – is deeply wired for the saga. All great music and all great stories ever written are in their own right sagas. Even great music that is purely instrumental is still saga-like in the way the music unfolds. The saga is at the core of what makes Western man who he is.

Christianity, then, is like the saga of all sagas. That is how to understand Christianity. To me Christianity is intensely about humans, not Jesus. It says everything about humans.

I have been further thinking on this. It seems that in recent times there has been a kind of rebellion against the saga, against the greatness that it represents. Just as Jesus himself has been openly mocked on tv shows like “Saturday Night Live”, there has been a genre of movies and tv about what is called “jackass culture”. People who act like fools. One sees a lot of this type of jackass “humor” – I put it in quotes because designating it as humor is highly questionable – mostly it’s completely repugnant.

This jackass culture in a way represents a low point. We see it in our society at a time when our country is critically endangered, when Western civilization has become so weak that it’s about to literally die.

Jackass culture is not the only symptom of the dying. There is also a lot of fiendishness and irresponsibility. People have lost basic dignity and decency. And of course at the same time as our culture is dying, our countries are being flooded with vast hordes of alien invaders as we our people are about to die and our great sagas also die.