The Masks of God™ series is part of the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell.
The Masks of God™ series is a four-volume study of world religion and myth that stands as one of Joseph Campbell’s masterworks. On completing it, he wrote:
“Its main result for me has been the confirmation of a thought I have long and faithfully entertained: of the unity of the race of man, not only in its biology, but also in its spiritual history, which has everywhere unfolded in the manner of a single symphony, with its themes announced, developed, amplified and turned about, distorted, reasserted, and today, in a grand fortissimo of all sections sounding together, irresistibly advancing to some kind of mighty climax, out of which the next great movement will emerge.”
In this first volume of The Masks of God™ Series, Joseph Campbell uncovers the wellsprings of myth. From the earliest expressions of religious awe in pre-modern humans to the rites and art of contemporary primal tribes, myth has informed humankind’s understanding of the world, seen and unseen. Exploring these archetypal mythic images and practices, Campbell examines the basic concepts that underlie all human myth, even to this day.
In this second volume of The Masks of God™ Series, Joseph Campbell explores Asian mythology as it developed over the course of five thousand years into the distinctive religions of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, and Japan.
In this third volume of The Masks of God™ Series, Joseph Campbell lays out a systematic and fascinating comparison of the themes that underlie the art, worship, and literature of the western world.
In this fourth and final volume of The Masks of God™ Series, Joseph Campbell presents
the European mythology of individualism as it took flower in medieval Europe and spread, through the Renaissance, to influence modernist thought, art, and literature.