Kindle Notes & Highlights
The “not yet” dimension of victory is obvious in the struggles of the seven churches addressed in chapters 2–3 of the book. However, chapter 1 establishes the tone for the who...
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The present dimension of victory is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, “the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth” (1:5). The next verse describes the Christian reader using the language of Exodus 19:6 (“kingdom, priests”), thereby implying a victorious status akin to Israel after the demise of Pharaoh’s army. And the chapter ends (Rev 1:12–20) with a vision of...
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Four Features of My Narrative Theology This book takes its place among a multitude of contemporary writings that emphasize the primacy of narrative for doing theology. My book taps into this Zeitgeist, this “narrative turn” in contemporary culture.310 Accordingly, my work intersects that of other narrative theologians at many points. Nevertheless, my deep roots in the “biblical theology” of Vos and Clowne...
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Unity of th...
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Diversity of the Stories
As I have attempted to show, the reader who would travel from Genesis to Revelation needs (at least) seven distinctive road-maps, seven basic plots, each with their own set of values.
Stories that Focus on Christ
Closed and Open-Ended Stories Through the resurrection (glorification) of Christ, the final chapter of the story has begun to imprint its glory on life in the middle of the story. Accordingly, the Christian life is lived in acute tension between the “already-now” and the “not yet” of the semi-finished narrative.316
Like some modern playwrights, each of our authors invites the members of his audience to take up the story and write the final scene of the drama for themselves.”317
The Apostles are called into a journey-to-witness (Acts 1:8), and the verses that follow (1:9–11) drop a massive hint about the content of their testimony. These verses repeatedly mention visual activity by the Apostles (“looking”; “eyes”; “gazing”; “looking”; “seeing”). What did they see? The ascension of Jesus into heaven. Specifically, the ascension into a cloud. Our modern western scientific context predisposes us to ask “meteorological” questions about such verses. But, to the ancient reader, symbolic dimensions loomed larger. Specifically, Daniel 7:13 associates “the clouds of heaven”
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11 The Purple Rose of Cairo
Shakespeare’s famous “All the world’s a stage” monologue clearly follows in this classical tradition. The monologue traces seven “acts” of life’s drama, corresponding to seven “ages,” in which the individual plays seven “parts.” Here (partly paraphrased) are the phases of life according to Shakespeare: 1. Infant 2. Schoolboy (“creeping like snail unwillingly to school”) 3. Lover 4. Soldier (“seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon’s mouth”) 5. Judge (“full of wise saws and modern instances”) 6. Retirement 7. Senility/Dementia (“second childishness and mere oblivion”)
The epic journey of the Apostles was triggered by divine interventions into history—the resurrection/ascension of Jesus, and the outpouring at Pentecost of the Holy Spirit. As you read the story of Acts, you sense a narrative strongly shaped by providential patterns.) When, however, Western culture loses any sense of providence (whether classical or Christian), the world-as-theater metaphor breaks down into “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”330
Reality Check
Let’s focus on the crucial question: Is literary contrivance and convention automatically unreal?
So, in place of skepticism over narrative, we need to refine our understanding of the subtle link between story and reality. Thankfully, good discussions of this topic are not hard to find (and Aristotle may have been right all along).
Are our narrative simplifications of life helpful clarifications—or harmful reductions?
Mind the Gap
Is your life story merely a useful abstraction from events, allowing you to see meaningful connections? Or is your “personal myth” profoundly disconnected from reality?
Poetic License and Rhetoric
The quote we just read (from Herder) implies that the gap between story and life can actually work to our advantage. Paradoxically, the storyteller “shortchanges” life in order to enrich life. Narrative form obscures some dimensions of life in order to reveal other, deeper dimensions. Imaginative literature is “the ‘lie’ that tells the truth.”364
This rhetorical function of narrative was recognized by Aristotle.366 He used the Greek term mimesis (poorly translated as “imitation” or “representation”) to describe the relationship between story and life. One commentator explains the term admirably: Mimesis may be seen . . . as an imaginative redescription which captures what Aristotle called the “essence” . . . of our lives. Mimesis is not about idealist escapism or servile realism. It is a pathway to the disclosure of the inherent “universals” of existence that makes up human truth . . . Far from being a passive copy of reality, mimesis
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To round off our discussion of story as metaphor (or poetic license, or rhetoric), let us revisit a common instance of literary contrivance mentioned above, namely the convention that requires the hero to fail twice and succeed at the third attempt.
Indulge me in a little mathematical illustration. Identify the next number N in the following sequence: 2, 4, N. Could N = 6? Maybe. Or could N = 8? Possibly. Both answers could be correct, and it all depends upon the kind of pattern underlying the sequence. If the pattern is addition, then N = 6; if the pattern is multiplication, then N = 8. Here is the punchline: the number three seems to be the minimum required to establish a clear pattern.
Applied to literature, the pattern of success at the third attempt can teach several truths. For example, if the first two failed attempts involve trying opposite extremes, the successful third attempt may reinforce the value of the “golden mean.”368 Alternatively, two failures underscore the difficulty of success (failure is twice as likely), and invite us to ask what the hero did differently at the third try.
In Greek mythology, Procrustes would invite travelers to sleep in a particular bed. He wanted the bed to be a precise fit for each guest. So, he ensured the proper fit by either stretching or amputating his guests! The “Procrustean bed” can be a metaphor of our tendency to force the world to fit our story, rather than revising our story in the face of new evidence.
To end this chapter, some thoughts on the wise use of story: • any story can be an entry-point into the spiral of interpretation of life; the better the story, the fewer and less painful the revolutions of the spiral. • story is a flexible, adjustable framework, used in dialogue with reality/experience. • story offers resources for imaginative exploration of the world, not pre-packaged answers to our questions about the world.
How did the New Testament writers tell the story of Jesus? By clothing him in the archetypal plotlines and imagery from the Hebrew Bible! From the four Gospels to Paul to Hebrews, Jesus is imaged in terms of the storyline of the book of Exodus.388 Apparently, that ur-narrative epic of liberation, journey, and community formation was just the lens needed to help us grasp the significance of Jesus.
How would the Roman Empire have interpreted the story of the first-century church? Probably as a dishonorable “tragedy”—the tragedy of futile and doomed resistance against the power and glory of the dominant culture. How did the book of Revelation interpret the same story? By a complete reversal of the Roman imperial version! Faithful Christians are depicted, not as defeated, but as “victors” in an athletic (or military) contest.
12 End-User Responsibility In our previous chapter, we searched for greater insight into the intersection between story and life. In this chapter, we will seek greater understanding of how stories transform lives.
If you are seeking a story that you can live inside (a narrative home for your life), then this chapter may give you some thought-provoking pointers. The story you wish to inhabit—can that story offer you all the healthy effects of good narratives (effects listed later in this chapter)?
Story as Cause-and-Effect
We can use Marx’s dichotomy to pigeonhole stories into three types:404 stories that establish worlds myths stories that explore worlds most stories stories that overturn worlds counter-myths and parables
Whatever the values that you and I struggle to realize, we know that reality doesn’t always oblige. Our dreams may not materialize, or may be devoured by their nightmare opposites. Given this narrative context for values, we shouldn’t be surprised if a particular archetypal plotline tends to revolve around a particular value. But the fit between plot type and value isn’t a one-to-one mapping. For example, desire for justice confronted with an unsolved crime becomes a quest narrative. But justice confronted by a corrupt legal system may prompt a “dragon-slaying” storyline.
If value relates directly to plot, then virtue relates directly to character. Virtue answers the question, “What kind of person should I be?” Just as value comes in pairs of binary opposites, so does virtue. At least it did in the Greco-Roman world, when moralists produced lists of virtues and their corresponding vices. The New Testament tapped into such lists, in formulating qualifications for church leaders (1 Tim 3:2–3): Virtues temperate; hospitable; gentle (etc.) Vices given to wine; covetous; quarrelsome (etc.)
In identifying with a character and experiencing their choices vicariously, we can begin to internalize their virtues. Identification can also invoke our empathy, our sense of solidarity with the rest of humanity. We end this chapter with a brief look at the power of narrative to induce empathy. Story as Empathy
Screenwriters exploit this capacity, by encouraging us to identify with the protagonist early in the movie. Some screenwriters call this convention “saving the cat”; within the first twenty minutes of the film, the protagonist must perform an act we can admire.419
We should never underestimate the ethical benefit of experiencing empathy. C. S. Lewis considered this “enlargement of our being” a major blessing bestowed by literature.420 In the absence of empathy, there seems no limit to the cruelty and horrors homo sapiens can perpetrate.421
Empathy in the form of pity (Greek eleos) is a key component of the much-debated Aristotelian concept of catharsis. Tragic narrative, said Aristotle, rouses pity and fear (Greek phobos) and effects a catharsis (purification) of such emotions.422 When we identify with the protagonist of tragedy, we vicariously share his vulnerability to the workings of fate: “Cathartic awe stops us in our tracks, throws us off kilter, deworlds us. The Greeks identified this with the detachment of the Olympian deities, enabling us to see through things, however troubling or terrible, to their inner or ultimate
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For example, in human conflict, many of us are willing to virtually demonize our adversary. Even in a secular society, many resort to explanatory narratives with remarkable parallels to the demonization narratives of “superstition.”424 Such narratives invoke the hidden forces of demon possession to explain the sufferings of the victim. Similarly, many of us attribute all our problems to the negative self-image we internalized as a child, as if the negative voice of our parents “took possession” of our souls. Such explanations render our parents the equivalent of the demonic other. By contrast,
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Review and Preview In this chapter, we have begun a systematic exploration of how stories change lives. Our exploration followed a simple two-dimensional map: on the x-axis, around ten typical impacts stories have on readers; on the y-axis, five elements of story. This map links story impact to story element(s), whilst recognizing the holistic experience of reading. Using this map, we discussed story impact using four categories: story as window; story as cause-and-effect; story as values and virtues; story as empathy. Under all four catego...
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13 Don Quixote Rides Again
“The Story Takes Care of the Rest”
At the end of their journey, what they find is different from (and better than) what they initially searched for. Indeed, one “how-to” guide for budding novelists asserts as dogma: “This plot [the quest] is about the character who makes the search, not about the object of the search itself. Your character is in the process of changing during the course of the story.
What or who is she becoming?”429
Type of Transforming Episode Plot Archetype ordeal/test quest ascent overcoming-the-monster epiphany à seeing relationships with new eyes comedy exposure to an unfamiliar world voyage-and-return life-giving intervention by another character rebirth
If you want to change, heed the call of a story. If Abraham had known he would be asked to sacrifice his own son Isaac (Genesis 22), he would never have journeyed from Ur of the Chaldees (Gen 12:1–3). If he had stayed put in Ur, he would never have become the father of three world religions.
Personal Myths
Stage of Life Typical Plot of Personal Story teens ascent (striving for identity and independence) twenties comedy (facing the challenges of relationships) mid-life quest (for an enduring legacy)
Living the Archetypes
