Narrative, Theology, and Philosophy of Religion

Interpreter: A journal of Mormon scripture, 2014

The following are reflections on some of the complicated history, including the abuses, of what is commonly known as theology. The Saints do not “do theology.” Even when we are tempted, we do not reduce the contents or grounds of faith to something conforming to traditional theology. Instead, we tell stories of how and why we came to faith, which are then linked to a network of other stories found in our scriptures, and to a master narrative. We live in and by stories and not by either dogmatic or philosophically grounded systematic theology. Instead, we tend to engage in several strikingly different kinds of endeavors, especially including historical studies, which take the place of (and also clash with) what has traditionally been done under the name theology in its various varieties, confessional or otherwise. In 1992, I published an essay in which I pointed out the word “theology” and how much of what it describes originated with Plato, Aristotle, and the Orphics. The word is no...

STJ | Stellenbosch Theological Journal

There has been a definite turn in practical theology and theology at large in the last four decades. The inadequacies of the Enlightenment project to keep in tension the rational and non-rational traditions of interpretations, significance of the relative for universal moral appropriation, the importance of lived experiences for identity, the critical engagement of tradition and choice, and the widening gap between the finite and infinite are addressed within a narrative approach. Another voice is added to narrative approaches for the interpretation of person, the world and God. Narrative approach for meaning making of person, world and God through reasoning is embedded in experience.A common thread of narrative theology is that persons can make sense of themselves, the world and God through stories. A narrative approach to theology is much more than a bridge between interpretation and first order language. It is the process, structure, and form of interpretation and reflection of t...

The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2001

Not long ago, narrative was all the rage... today, not as much. The fashionable preoccupation with (yet another) category to deliver religious imagination from the grips of organizing principles - artificial and reductionistic tropes - enjoyed its brief day in the sun. As with most fads, narrative theology still influences many but not in the label - more in the details and low-powered vocabulary. Why? Because we're frightened by those grand, reductionistic themes... embarrassed by our hubris and too cool to be tricked once again. Good luck with that.... "Narrative Theology" is a piece published as part of Walter Elwell's 2001 revised edition of The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Baker).

Religions, 2022

This article examines the role of hope relative to the unexplored potential of narrative theology as a particular mode of thinking. The first section provides a brief introduction. The second section begins by discussing the world of experience as postulated by Alfred North Whitehead: I argue that literal idolatry forms as a specific technology based around the use of symbols. The third section explores the resources of narrative as a centrifugal model of metaphor that serves as a robust alternative literal idolatry: I argue that narratives develop the intellect through pattern recognition and the imagination through empathetic recognition, and then describe how narrative theory’s emphasis on focalized perspectives opens hopeful expectations of the future. The fourth section explores Ricoeur’s work in narrative theology, defining it as a “field” whose dynamic emphasis on tension provides an alternative to the static, “closed circuit” of religious symbols. The final section looks at Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist as a contemporary novel that seems to fit with Ricoeur’s stipulations for what generates a field of narrative theology.

Out of Egypt: biblical theology and …

Grand or Meta narrative is an unlikely item on an agenda for biblical studies today. In our 'postmodern' era we have we have learnt to adopt an attitude of 'incredulity towards metanarratives'1, and within academic biblical studies we have been trained to emphasise diversity and to be suspicious of attempts to read the Bible as a (unified) whole. Despite these hostile forces our contention in this chapter is that there is much to be gained from the recovery of reading the Bible as a grand narrative. Not only do we think this possible -and thus wish to commend it as a major way of doing biblical theology -but we also think it important if Scripture is to function as God's Word in the life of his people.

Ars Disputandi, 2005

An important development in Christian theology during the second half of the twentieth century was what we might call the 'narrative turn'-i.e. the idea that Christian theology's use of the Bible should focus on a narrative representation of the faith rather than the development of a set of propositions deduced from the data of revelation. This paper inquires, first, whether and to what extent a narrative approach to systematic theology is incompatible with a 'referential account'. It is argued that a referential account of theology is compatible with narrative theology. Second, the author elaborates on the nature of reference in narrative by scrutinising three popular maxims of narrative theology, namely, (1) that narrative expressions do not have the universal pretensions of propositional expressions of faith; (2) that references in narrative always remain implicit in the story whereas, in propositional expressions, they are always explicit; and (3) that narrative forms of expression are typically associated with the 'ambiguity' of reference, whereas propositional forms are typically associated with lack of ambiguity.

A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth." "That's what fiction is for. It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the truth."

An essay commissioned by the Open Book Storytellers of the Northumbria Community on behalf of the British and Foreign Bible Society. January 2000