I am an avowed atheist, but to discover why I was reading a book about Christian myth makers, you need look no further than the subtitle of the book. Tolkien, L'Engle, MacDonald, and Lewis are all authors I have enjoyed. Although this book looks at them primarily as Christian writers, the discussion of each of those authors writings was enjoyable.

Also enjoyable was Clyde Kilby's forward on the nature of myth. Myth in the writings of these authors is not the low definition of discredited stories. Rather, this book discusses the higher meaning of myth. In the words of Kilby, "Myth is the name of a way of seeing, a way of knowing in depth, a way of experiencing -- a way that in being disinterested contains the freedom of unending and vital interest." Myth is necessary because "Systematizing flattens, but myth rounds out. Systematizing drains away color and life, but myth restores." Any translation of idea into language, reality into system loses some depth. Myth is what recaptures that depth by providing sidelong glimpses of some sensed truth.

Hein makes the assumption that the truth that myth points to is embodied in Christianity -- the Bible presents myth that is also factual truth. This is not a bad assumption in so far as it is what the authors under discussion believed. However, it is an assumption and one that fails to carry its own weight upon further examination.

In the end, this book was a worthwhile read, but the large number of authors surveyed and lack of willingness to examine the basic assumptions Christianity's relationship to myth made it somewhat shallow. ( )