My friend at Monkwater asked a question about my Blue Parakeet post. I thought the question was good enough for a nice long answer and I though the answer was worthwhile enough to deserve its own post. So here you go. The original question and my answer:
Monkwater asks, “Assuming most of us read the Bible from the viewpoint of systematic theology, what changes if we now read from a narrative viewpoint?”
McKnight, in The Blue Parakeet, calls reading the Bible from the viewpoint of systematic theology “Puzzling together the pieces to map God’s mind.” He states several problems with reading this way including these:
- Once the puzzle is put together, one doesn’t have to deal with the odd or leftover pieces any more.
- Someone who has puzzled together the Bible knows what the Bible must say before it’s opened, the puzzle is solved.
- The system of thought brought by the reader is something that no author in the Bible believed. (That point, when you think about it, is huge – really really huge.)
- The parts that don’t fit are ignored – as an example, note how each system (major denominations, theological systems, etc.) will emphasize parts and ignore others.
- The task of puzzling is really impossible: there are simply too many authors, spanning vastly different times and languages and cultures to pull together a systematic theology without leaving out important nuances and silencing many a blue parakeet.
-Finally, this way of reading fails to honer the Bible as we have it. Our Scripture is not a systematic theology. It is a bunch of stories. Perhaps God was telling us something by giving us the Bible as a story – that we should read it as story. McKnight writes, “God did not give the Bible so we could master him or it; God gave the Bible so we could live it, so we could be mastered by it.”
And that last bit is one of the major changes that comes from reading the Bible as story (narrative). As we get sucked up into the story we are more likely to be changed by it. When we enter into the author’s context and feelings we can be gripped by what he or she was gripped with.
Furthermore, reading as story makes us focus on context. A story happens within a particular context with its own particular vocabulary and ways of communicating. McKnight gives a great example about how the Bible prohibits charging interest on loans then writes,
You probably read this prohibition of interest the same way I do: That was then, and this is now. Reading the Bible like this is reading the Bible as Story. It unfolds and propels us to live out the Bible in our day in our way….Times have changed. God spoke in Moses’ days in Moses’ ways (about interest), and he spoke in Jesus’ days in Jesus’ ways, and he spoke in Paul’s days in Paul’s ways. And he speaks in our days in our ways – and it is our responsibility to live out what the Bible says in our days. We do this by going back so we can come forward.
As the Bible is read as story, it becomes evident that the Grand Story (creation, crack , community, Christ, community, consummation) is told and retold (in whole or in part) by new story tellers time and again – each picking up the old story but reworking it for their own day. This pattern must continue in our time. And that means that we may each tell a slightly different story and that the story we tell in a few years may be different than the one we tell today. The Grand Story is the same but the way it gets worked out in each context will be different.
So what changes if we read through the lens of narrative rather than the lens of systematic theology? In short, the Bible becomes more flexible, more dangerous, more diverse and nuanced and fun. It becomes more alive for now, for the moment, for this day in our context (and, by the way, more alive in its original context). We stop trying to live in the days of Moses, or Paul, or Wesley, or Bresee and we begin to live in our own day, in our own way.
Now, you might say, that could lead to “anything goes.” Well, it doesn’t. Read The Blue Parakeet. McKnight gives a great method for reading with tradition and in line with the Grand Story of the Bible. It is a really good read.
After being a Christian for something close to 30 years, I got involved in a project at my church that bears on your idea: It was called “Cover to Cover” and is based around a community reading the Bible straight through in 90 days. Not to get bogged down in the details of the program (only on request!) but the experience of reading the whole Bible as one story, the way I would read a novel, was quite eye-opening.
I am use to doing “systematic” reading, and looking at a passage to wring all the juice possible from it; context, referals, setting, parallels, original language, symbols, etc. I still think that is a very good way to read, and in different lengths -from isolated thoughts to whole “books.” But it is not the whole story.
My analogy relates to the “puzzle” motif, but for me, a jigsaw puzzle. I am use to analizing a particular piece, seeing some white, and a corner of blue. These relate to other blue that I’ve understood to be sky, and I am beginning to see that the white is a boat’s sail. There is much to be learned doing it this way. But sometimes it is helpful to “turn over the box-lid” and see the puzzle as one picture, all at once.
I’ve been able to see with much more confidence the meta-narrative of creation, the aver-arching story the Bible has to tell. The other kind of study then fills in the details, and helps me understand the specific parts of the story.
Trying to use one way only now seems like trying to row with one oar: possible, but a very difficult way to make much progress!
Great post – thank you!
Thank you.
My fading modern paranoia is worried about filling out my pastor’s report on how many were saved and sanctified this past year.
I resonate with the narrative approach, “as we get sucked up into the story we are more likely to be changed by it.”
I’m with you on that but selling systematic salvation and assurance is more concrete than entering a story.
Seriously, beyond the report I want to see life change by joining a group of people in the story and wonder how to invite others in.
Great! Can I borrow your copy?