Ask a Christian why the wood is burning, and he’ll tell you that God is in the flames. He’ll refer you to the ancient stories, and there you’ll find a burning bush. But is that how a Christian would explain a forest fire?’ ‘No, of course not.’ ‘Exactly - and yet any true Christian treasures those stories. Indians believe in their ancient stories too, but not because they think they’re real. Our stories don’t describe how such-and-such a thing actually is. They describe the idea of it. In our stories you’ll find everything and nothing, because you can’t take anything literally, yet it all makes
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