the biblical narrative

This has been in my files for a while and I thought I would put it on my blog.

From the now seeming defunct blog http://desertpastor.typepad.com/paradoxology/ on December 02, 2007, Scot McNight wrote, "The biblical narrative as a "Wiki-Story" is, in fact, an approach that is both historical and historic. It's the way the Church has always read the bible" (including Irenaeus). The ancient-future approach to read the bible is to read the bible as a story.

McNight quoted Abraham J. Heschel : "to believe the bible is to remember, not merely to accept the truth as a set of dogmas."

Here is how the church listened to the story of the Bible (McNight's 5-part Thesis):

1. There is a gospel, a message of deep magic – the story of God's relational saving truth.
2. There are expressions of the gospel's message, or deep magic. These expressions are stories of the story.
3. The stories unfold in time so that these stories form a plot – a meta-story.
4. This plot that we discern in scripture contains divine energy – the communicative action on God's part to engage you and me as communicants in covenantal relation with God and others.
5. The proper relationship of you and me to the story and its plot is one of listening and discerning well.

McKnight went on to present a comprehensive, scholarly treatise on these ideas. Of particular interest were his thoughts on "epistemic promiscuity", or... "why a 'wiki-story'?"

As we broke, Scot has encouraged us to discuss the following questions at our tables:

1. Which of the five models best describes how you read the Bible?

2. What can we do to restore "story" to the Church?

3. What are the positives and negatives of reading the Bible as a "Wiki-story"?

Again, jump on in and share your thoughts or reactions to any or all of these.

My own comments: this is interesting and and I believe a good picture of the message of God. What do you think?