Big History as an Extended Origin Myth: Including Spirituality and Values in Big History

In the introduction to Maps of Time, David Christian said he wanted to provide a modern creation story to meet the spiritual, psychic, and social needs of our time. Thus began the revolutionary presentation of a new paradigm—Big History as the interdisciplinary narrative from the origin of the universe to life on Earth and the current dominance of the human species. In this essay, I will argue that David Christian recognized the importance of human spirituality in the introduction to Maps of Time but did not build on that recognition in his account of collective learning, agricultural societies, or the emergence of modernity. This results in a gap in Big History if it is to be a true “grand unification” paradigm. The religious historian Karen Armstrong has made significant contributions to the study of spirituality and its evolution in world history. This essay draws on her insight into the role of mythology in religion and how her work can improve recognition of spirituality as a significant contributor to world history and Big History. The values expressed by David Christian and Karen Armstrong will also be discussed as depending on a foundation of mythological thinking. By recognizing spirituality, Big History can bring renewed attention to aspects of humanity that have been undervalued by scientific rationalism since the Enlightenment.