I am in the midst of writing a handout about stories and storytelling in the Christian tradition for my literature classes. What do you think is necessary to get across to 11 and 12 year olds?
Search This Classical Life:
categories:
in the middle of:
read in 2016:
Paterson, The Great Gilly Hopkins
Sloan, Ajax Penumbra 1969
Mandel, Station Eleven
Elliot, Shadow of the Almighty
Shakespeare, As You Like It
Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saintsarchives:
I have no idea, but I’d love a copy of your handout when you get it done!
I have no idea what the Christian tradition of storytelling is (I don’t think I’ve ever even heard the term until just now), but I do know that storytelling, as an international, timeless, and non-culture-specific act, is built around (in the words of Robert McKee) a selection of events from the characters’ life stories that is composed into a strategic sequence to arouse specific emotions and to express a specific view of life.
I mean that in the sense that the Bible is more story than anything else, and that God is telling a story and we’re still in it, and how literature is a reflection of God’s character in that way. Also, how God made people of all cultures to love stories and when we learn to tell stories we can often communicate more effectively with people from other backgrounds.
Oh, cool :)
One thing, and I was talking about this with Michelle a couple weeks ago (in relation to the nouveau adoration of archetypes in evangelicalism), wouldn’t it be more proper to say that literature is a reflection of God’s creation rather than of his character? While there are certainly characteristics of God that are reflected in literature (as there are in all creation), there are likewise things in literature that reflect antithesis as well.
Example: Cat’s Cradle is a wonderful book and contains a wonderful story. It makes me consider God. And yet, the specific view of life which it seeks to express is not one that would survive bare-footed before a burning bush. If we had to relate it to the character of God, we might better say it was a refraction of God’s character.
Yes, this is what I need to think through so I get it right ;) Good thoughts, Seth!
Perhaps you could add a succinct version of Tolkien’s idea that we are sub-creators from “On Farie Stories”… for an 11-12 yr old, perhaps phrase it as:
God created us with a desire to also create. When we create something like a story or a song or poem, we glorify God because we are reflecting the image of the Creator. We might create our own worlds that are reflections of God’s original creation, but with fantastic elements. Still, there will be glimpses of God’s world in our make-believe world. We may not write perfectly, because we are not perfect, but our stories will have redemptive qualities because the God who created us is the Redeemer and Savior. Even people who are not Christians may write stories with glimpses of this Truth, because they are also made in the image of the Creator. We write stories because we are made in the image of the Great Storyteller.
(Or something like that…) :)