[Disclaimer: I do not mean to offend anyone's personal views. My only aim here is to share a love of word play with others who may also appreciate it.]
Earlier this week I did the copy cataloging to enter this book into our library. I found the juxtaposition of the the title and the subject heading quite humorous.
Murphy, Francesca Aran. God is Not a Story: Realism Revisited.
LCSH: Narrative theology.
Truth be told, the book looks highly interesting to a heretic such as me, and the subject clearly matches the title because the book is (based on my reading a fair amount of the intro) a reaction to a “side-effect” of narrative theology, which argues that
the Church’s use of the Bible should focus on a narrative presentation of the faith, rather than on the exclusive development of a systematic theology.
The intro to the book explains it better than the Wikipedia article, but it seems that (and it makes sense that) a side-effect of focusing on story is that the view, intentional or otherwise, that ‘God is story’ arises. That’s is in the existential sense. Does seem to be a distinct possibility.
Anyway, based on my reading of Auerbach’s Mimesis I imagine that if I was a theologian I would be highly drawn to narrative theology. It is the story of the Bible that is important. But Murphy’s objection is easy enough to see as a definite issue within narrative theology.
Nonetheless, heathen word play lover that I am, God is Not a Story == Narrative theology cracks me up.
4 responses so far ↓
1 John Miedema // Sep 29, 2007 at 8:05 am
“Narrative theology” — now that caught my eye. Some years ago, I worked as a counsellor, and I was interested in “narrative therapy” as an approach (the Wikipedia entry for this one is not bad). I would like to see a bibliotherapy program that engages librarians and counsellors. A similar motive drives my Slow Reading blog. I would like to learn more about narrative theology. Maybe there is another branch there — linking librarians and clergy. Hmm. You got me thinking. If you happen to read any further on the subject, I would be interested. Have a good day, Mark.
2 barbara trumpinski-roberts // Sep 29, 2007 at 8:32 am
I’m still reading The Black Swan and just finished Taleb’s discussions of confimation bias and narrative fallacy. If you haven’t read it, it might provide some insights…
John, I will check out your blog.
3 John Miedema // Sep 29, 2007 at 9:00 am
Thanks Barbara. I don’t think Mark will mind if I leave the Slow Reading blog link, since you’re interested. http://slowreading.wordpress.com.
4 Mark // Sep 29, 2007 at 11:51 am
Hi, John, I will do that. Not likely I’ll be able to read much on the subject at the moment, though.
Since there is an LCSH for it and it has it’s own DDC class # (230.046) there must be a decent amount of material on the subject.
I look forward to perhaps reading something about it and/or the intersection of librarians and clergy on your blog.
And, no, I do not mind at all your providing a link to your Slow Reading blog. If I was redoing my
“blogs one could read” presentation again it is one of the most likely to be added.
Hi barbara and thanks for the recommendation. It looks interesting. Glad you found out about John’s blog–it’s a good one and a very good concept.