Thursday, July 28, 2011

What is it about Story? Is there anything we want to say that we can't say best in a story?

I read a lot of theology books. I enjoy many of them and I learn quite  bit from most of them so this is not an anti-intellectual screed.

That said, if I were to list the 3-4 books that have really fed my soul over the last year or spoken to me in terms of things I'm wrestling with, none of them would be Christian books on theology or scripture per se.

I would list novels. Here are 4 that I have read in the last year and loved:

Mary Doria Russel's The Sparrow (and its sequel) The Children of God.
Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt.
Shusaku Endo's Deep River.
Marilynne Robinson's Gilead.

They are all books that deal with God or Christian themes in one way or another. They are all complex, layered, beautiful and, at times, disturbing (particularly The Sparrow). Each is filled with a fair bit of theologizing, or making theological statements about meaning, who we are, who God is, suffering, etc.. And yet, none of them preach at you or lecture. They draw you into their stories and characters and invite participation.

Occasionally, I'll end a book of theology and wish there was more. Not often, though. With these, I find myself living in the worlds they create well after I've read the last page. Even dreaming about them. I stay up until 4 in the morning finishing them and am saddened when the last page comes.

Is this just me? It seems to me that story is central to what it is to be human. As Alisdair McIntyre and Stanley Haurwas say, "We cannot know who we are until we know the story of which we are a part." We are hungry for stories. We are story-tellers. We are shaped by our stories. The God of Israel was not the God of theological abstraction, but the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. A God known by the stories of those who had interacted with God. Jesus communicated the truths of the Kingdom of God in stories.

And yet, in ministry, we are suspect of stories. They're fine for warming up the room. Getting folks' attention, getting them to laugh, be with us, but when it's time to really communicate the Big Things, we move to propositions and abstractions. We talk conceptually about love, faith, forgiveness when we could tell stories. "A certain man had two sons..."or "A man wanted to throw a great banquet and invited many guests..."

Do we not trust stories? Do we not trust our audiences, or ourselves as tellers? Is that why we need to follow them up with, "Now, let me tell you the three points you should take from that...?" What if we just shut up and let the story be? Do we just need to maintain control and propositions let us do that?

If we have a theological idea so complex it can't be communicated in a story, is it worth telling? Is it real?

In youth ministry, we want to be a part of shaping and forming young people as followers of Jesus. I suspect spending less time in Paul and more time telling the stories of the Gospels (and the OT) might help us do that better.

God is a story.

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