Mysterious Myths or Legendary Legends?

I am posting this paper, in part to prove that this is still somewhat a Chestertonian blog, and also because I believe it brings up many important questions about Christian Mythology. I originally wrote this paper for a seminar course on the "Anglo-Catholic" movement of "Radical Orthodoxy."

In the modern world, the word myth is synonymous with the word false. But should it be? G.K. Chesterton wrote:

What are here called the Gods might almost alternatively be called the day-dreams. To compare them to dreams is not to deny that dreams can come true. To compare them to travellers' [sic] tales is not to deny that they may be true tales, or at least truthful tales. In truth they are the sort of tales the traveller [sic] tells to himself. All this mythological business belongs to the poetical part of men. It seems strangely forgotten nowadays that a myth is a work of imagination and therefore a work of art. It needs a poet to make it. It needs a poet to criticise it. There are more poets than non-poets in the world, as is proved by the popular origin of such legends. But for some reason I have never heard explained, it is only the minority of unpoetical people who are allowed to write critical studies of these popular poems.
(The Everlasting Man, 70)

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Yours in Christ,
Thursday