Bob - "This is most certainly true" as we Lutherans like to say. I have
pointed out here a number of times the obvious fact that Jesus uses
stories to convey truth.
George
Robert Schneider wrote:
> Hello, all, I have been away from my computer for a week, able to
> monitor the voluminous listserv messages on a webmail site but unable
> to respond. The following topic has been dealt with by several, but I
> want to add another angle. Someone wrote: "If you believe Genesis
> 1 is just a story, you have weak faith." Whenever my students used
> to express a similar comment, usually something like, "I don't want
> the Bible to be considered just stories," I would ask them to remove
> the "just" from the sentence (the "weak" in the present sentence has
> already been challenged, rightly). No story is "just a story," and it
> is sad that the word "story" has been so denigrated, mainly, I regret
> to say, by literalists who claim to be defending the Bible from such a
> charge and imput this notion to those who disagree with them. We who
> recognize and value the power of stories need to defend "story" from
> this dismissive view. A Bible scholar (I believe it was Joseph
> Fitzmeyer) said that the biblical writers used story to teach
> theology. And for good reason. Every story makes a truth claim, and
> this is certainly true of sacred stories, whether they be historical
> accounts, myths, folktales, parables, or whatever. There seems to be
> an assumption among some believers that stories are fiction, hence not
> true, and therefore any narrative in the Bible has to be a historical
> account in order for it to be true. But surely it impoverishes the
> concept of "truth" to limit it to the historical, when the most
> important and profound truths, in the Bible or in any other writings,
> sacred or otherwise, are theological, moral, and philosophical.
> "Fiction" is not "falsehood" and the opposite of fiction is history,
> not truth. How strange it is to assume that God could not use
> inspired fiction (e.g., the Book of Jonah, which an ancient Hebrew
> would be likely, rightly, to recognize as a mashal (parable)), to
> teach profound truths (as this book does), when we human beings use
> fiction in this way all the time! (And even historical narratives are
> interpretations, not descriptions of what actually happened, as indeed
> are the historical narratives in Scripture.) Elie Wiesel once said
> that "God made man because he loves stories." I love the ambiguity in
> that statement: Does "he" refer to God or man? Both, I think. Bob
> Schneiderrjschn39@bellsouth.net
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