Your Life is Based on a Story
There is more to the story than meets the eye…
“Human life, then, can be seen as grounded in and constituted by the implicit or explicit stories which humans tell themselves and one another. This runs contrary to the popular belief that a story is there to ‘illustrate’ some point.” (N.T. Wright, 1992, p. 38)
How do people understand their world? They understand the world through the medium of story. We are all storytellers. This is so much so the case that the German ethnologist, Kurt Ranke, suggested that humans be called “homo narrans” (storytelling humans). When you explain an event that happened, you will notice we don’t merely state “the facts.”
If we literally only communicated “the facts” and no interpretation whatsoever, it would sound like a loose and jumbled mess of words that would be unintelligible to the listener. Instead, we order the facts in a linear story format with a beginning (including a setting and characters), followed by a conflict, and we end the story with a resolution.
When I go to wash the dishes, the kitchen sink is the setting, and I am the character who has to ascend the peak of dishes and the gross, crusted-over food bits in the bottom of those pots and pans. How I conceptualize the task of cleaning dirty dishes is formatted as a story. Now, the story may not be interesting, but a story nonetheless.
If you think about it, you always process the world like this, especially the more profound things in your life. When you think about the scope of your life, you will frame it in this linear narrative way: your origin story, what you hope to achieve in life, and where you want to be when you die. If you’ve ever set goals, you’ve participated in story-telling (hopefully not too much fictional story-telling).
Many people tend to view stories as something that is only used to “illustrate” a point. This thinking suggests that the story is not the “real thing.” This is a great misconception. There is simply only story; the illustration is the point. This commonly expressed point of view shows a misunderstanding of how humans work. We are storytellers.
Additionally, because of this misunderstanding, using stories to connect with the imagination of our fellow humans to spread Christianity and the Kingdom’s message is often neglected.
Due to the effects of the Enlightenment, the modern way to argue or spread Christian belief is through logical argumentation or dissertations. These may be the standard Christian apologetic practices, but this wastes a lot of energy for little results.
For most people, it isn’t a logic issue; it’s a story issue. This modern method of apologetics is not where most of the effort should be used when expressing Christianity to others. If you want something to resonate deeply with your audience. Tell them a story and tell it masterfully. If you grab hold of their imagination, you have captured the person. Think about your own life:
- Which was more impactful in your life? A story or a logical argument/ dissertation you’ve read.
- Have you ever wondered why the Bible is written primarily in a narrative and poetic format?
- Have you ever wondered why Jesus uses stories so much in his teachings and debates?
Stories activate all of us. “It is not primarily our minds that are captivated but rather our imaginations that are captured, and when our imagination is hooked, we’re hooked”(James K. A. Smith, 2009, p.54). Stories, music, symbols, and pictures engage our imagination, which engages all of who we are. Logical argumentation only activates a small part of us, one we can easily dismiss because of the metanarrative that governs us.
The metanarrative interprets the logical argumentation we receive, allowing us to accept or not accept the information before us. We accept it if it matches our story for how we see reality. If the argumentation doesn’t fit our story, we dismiss it as untrue. Story is our language and how we understand and make sense of reality. Story is primary.
The implications of this for Christianity and spreading the Kingdom are that we should tell more and better stories to communicate the Kingdom. This mission requires more storytellers, artists, musicians, and poets. The effect of this would result in a far more effective approach than logical argumentation alone. I’m not saying logical arguments are pointless.
The issue is that they are often used exclusively to the neglect of everything else. This is a considerable misunderstanding of how humans work. To effectively communicate the message of Christianity, we need to understand how the human creature works. It is a creature that understands the world through story, and that’s how you reach its heart.
There is a place for logical argumentation, which is supplementary, not primary. We don’t need more arguments from contingency, teleology, or ontology. We need a new but ancient way to argue, the argument from story.
What is the story you are going to tell?
I created this blog as an outlet to exercise the ideas that have haunted my mind for about a year. I will discuss and contemplate story, imagination, formation, Christian education, icons, symbols, pictures, and poetry. Journey with me as we delve into the deep cavernous thoughts of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Malcolm Guite, James K.A. Smith, N.T. Wright, and Charles Taylor, and The Holy Scriptures. If you are interested in or hate this content, join the conversation, as I will blog about these subjects and authors every Sunday morning.
