Story Theology

Good intro to story/narative theology. illustrates by dealing with many of the story types in the Bible: eschatological stories, stories about Jesus, stories by Jesus, stories about the church. Deals with what "true" means in terms of story. Very good! Forward by Robert McAfee Brown.

Tilley presents a summary of the thought that has emerged in the field of story theology. He argues for story theology as a legitimate form of theology.A christian narrative theology undertakes exploring, transforming and proclaiming the stories of Christianity. All theology deals with metaphors for the Divine-human relationship. In the Christian context there are significant keywords: incarnation, salvation, redemption, and resurrection among others. The first task of Christian narrative theology is to uncover the stories which show what the Christian key words mean. This is done by reference to ths stories which provide the context for the keywords and help define their meaning.The narrative theologian shows the multiple meanings of the Christian keywords. The narrative theologian helps to transform creatively the narratives of the tradition in order to recognize the new contexts in which we live and to express the tradition effectively in this new context. Story theologians proclaim and manifest the good news.Tilley uses Crossan's categories of stories and develops the ideas in more detail.Myth-sets up a world for people to dwell in or constitutes a tradition for people to live in. a) myths awaken and maintain I the individual an experience of awe, huility and respect, in recognition of that ultimate mystery, transcending names and forms. b) myths show where all came from and where all is going. c) myths legitimize the social structure. d) an adequate myth centers and harmonizes the lie of an individual in the social structure which the myth has validated. Myth gives a person a role to play in society.The world in which we now live is one in which many myths compete to control the earth and the people on it.Parable is a story set within a world created by myth and which functions to subvert the world in which it is set. --parables shake one's world to its foundation --parables must be distinguished from countermyths or anti-myth, which is a story setting up a story in opposition to the first. For example, satanism might be considered an antimyth to Christianity. Whereas the stories of paganism would be a competing myth systemHe describes actions as stories set within worlds. The stories can be factual or fictional. Such stories reveal how things go within the world.Much of the remainder of the book is an exploration of the story of Jesus and the stories he told. Tilley does consider the stories of the saints as a way to accept Christianity creatively and provide it with new understandings.The other major contibution of the book is his discussion of the truth of stories. How do we judge whether the stories we hear and tell are true? He argues that the following criteria can be applied. A story is considered true to the extent that it:1) represents the world revealingly;2) is coherent by corresponding to the facts, by referring accurately and attributing correctly;3) shows ways of a) overcoming self-deception;b) shows a person how t