by Douglas Wilson
From The Credenda Agenda
Modern Christians have forgotten the art of story-telling, and this is a significant loss. C.S. Lewis described the problem well in The Horse and His Boy: "Aravis immediately began, sitting quite still and using a rather different tone and style from her usual one. For in Calormen, story-telling (whether the stories are true or made up) is a thing you are taught, just as English boys and girls are taught essay writing. The difference is that people want to hear the stories, whereas I never heard of anyone who wanted to read the essays."
Stories are powerful, even the false ones. And for those who are not steeped in the story of Scripture, we have to say the false ones are especially powerful. When it comes to having a need to orient all beliefs within a story, mankind is incorrigible. And we do this for the same reason that we stick to the ground when we walkâthis is how our Creator decided to do it. This is how God created our minds, and we cannot really think in other ways. Initially, this approach may seem odd or confusing. But learning to think of the gospel as a story is a central part of recovering a right understanding of the gospel.
Posted by bmcallister at March 27, 2004 10:27 AM | TrackBack