Stories/Storytelling
“All truth is God’s truth, wherever it is found. This is explicated well by both St. Basil…and also by St. Justin Martyr in his doctrine of the spermatikos logos….Christ Himself is a storyteller…A friend of mine, a fine storyteller, remarked to me, “Jesus was not a theologian. He was God who told stories.” (Father Andrew Stephen Damick, Madeleine L'Engle)
“Yet truth need not be confined to “fact,” and make-believe and the use of imagination—sub-creation—is not mere lying. Rather, the creation is full of echoes of the true God, and reflections of His story in dealing with and redeeming humankind. Thus, we can see hints and glimmerings of truth in many stories—including, surprisingly, even the garbled versions of the story told in pagan mythology. Some early Christian philosophers, such as Justin Martyr, put forward the idea of logoi spermatikoi [seminal logos], reasonable ideas scattered even upon the pagans, to which Christian missionaries could appeal.” (Edith M. Humphrey)
“…myth is not just true, but real. The nature and character of the world cannot be described properly without reference to something more. That something more has a nature that gives shape to the stories labeled as myths. They are not just any story, a sub-genre of fiction. Indeed, even stories that would otherwise be labeled “true” and “real” (in the literal sense) have significance precisely in their mythic character. Those who are “misomythic” are not necessarily anti-religious. However, their religion lacks power, beauty, and substance in that it is flat and empty. What modernity labels as “fact” is insufficient for human existence.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“Stories, no matter how simple, can be vehicles of truth; can be, in fact, icons. It’s no coincidence that Jesus taught almost entirely by telling stories, simple stories dealing with the stuff of life familiar to the Jews of his day. Stories are able to help us to become more whole, to become Named. And Naming is one of the impulses behind all art; to give a name to the cosmos we see despite all the chaos…And as I listen to the silence, I learn that my feelings about art and my feelings about the Creator of the Universe are inseparable. To try to talk about art and about Christianity is for me one and the same thing, and it means attempting to share the meaning of my life, what gives it, for me, its tragedy and its glory. It is what makes me respond to the death of an apple tree, the birth of a puppy, northern lights shaking the sky, by writing stories.” (Madeleine L'Engle)
“Children love stories and generally are open to learning through the stories. They want to be loved, to know what is true, to be safe and to do the good. Stories can help with that. If we don’t reduce the Bible to factual history, law, rules and regulations, but rather enter into the big story, we become part of what God is doing. As a child we don’t always worry about whether everything in the story is literally true, but we do discern what is good, safe, helpful and we allow those things to guide us as we navigate through the story. We learn through the stories of others what is good and right, true, trustworthy and honorable.” (Fr. Ted Bobosh)
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