ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the great perennial symbols, such as fire and air, earth and water, which have always had the mysterious transparency. There are certain areas of human life which have in world religions and in all ages been found especially suitable for the conveying of religious meaning. The most vivid evidence of the surviving power of food symbolism is to be found on television. An advertisement praising baked beans sprang right out of the Oedipus complex. There are many other ways in which the teacher who wishes to prepare himself to teach life-themes can do so. He can read fairy-stories. The caption is from an advertisement for the telephone and shows a little girl, smiling and cuddling her teddy bear, with the telephone pressed close to her ear. What the camera did for the eye the telephone did for the ear; the tape recorder and the record are the reply of the ear to the printed book.
