The Primacy of Story

Few Christians would argue with the fact that the Scriptures are imbued with a mysterious, transformative power (perhaps, to say it better, the Spirit’s power flows through the ancient texts, bringing about God’s intended transformation in us. It isn’t the words, but the Spirit’s use of them that makes them what they are to us).  A careful, constant, disciplined reading of the written word (and sometimes even a cursory reading) can bring about astounding changes to individuals and faith communities. 

There is significant debate among “liberal” and “conservative” camps about whether or not Scripture has to be literally true in order to be considered truth. To me (and this is not official church doctrine) “truth” is something--Someone--real that changes you, somehow transforms you into something different and beautiful (think caterpillar-to-butterfly). The factual, historical accuracy of the story is not nearly as important (I would go so far as to say that it is secondary to the “truth” of the story), not nearly as crucial as what the story does to us and in us. If we rely upon historical accuracy to validate the real truth of the story then we put the real truth in danger, for if some “fact” is proved inaccurate then have we not also invalidated the truth of the story at the same time?

But, if we leave the two independent of one another, yet still connected, then the negation of the historical truth is not a deathblow to the “real” truth. the connection is not unimportant, but it is not crucial. The power of the story comes in what it does to you, not in the its literal fact. Christians, particularly fundamentalist Christians, tend to stop at the literal factuality of the story, never going beyond it into the heart of the story. By way of example, a literal six day Creation is more important to some than the meaning(s) of Creation. This is tragic, that they never move beyond literalism. If science or archaeology were to prove six literal days inaccurate then they would have to do one of three things: 1) Abandon their faith for secularism (see above diagram); 2) Deny science and archaeology, a path many take (see state of Kansas education system); 3) Change their outlook on the story itself. I’d rather go with option 3, for if we change our outlook on the story (and on the primacy of Story) we will find a deeper appreciation, love, hunger, and power in THE STORY. And we may just be transformed.

shalom, matt