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The Row Boat"Had we but world enough, and time..." *
Primacy of Narrative1/29/2006 21:46:48I've been reading St. Paul in depth (which is pretty new to me actually - I've always resisted him) and trying to understand how he knew Christ. I think it was much like the way we know events in the newspaper rather than the way we talk about Christ today - that is, 100% narrative. Stories are our first encounter with the unknown, and they are what makes the unknown feel relevant to our existences. I remember, for instance, the way a story about a german girl who got cursed by a Guatemalan god made me start to wonder if I was cursed too - then I caught myself believing in the god, which was interesting and not altogether unsettling. That is a mistake of many people who talk about "belief," as if such a thing can exist on its own. They reverse the order of causes and think it is: 1. I believe in Christ 2. Christ knows my prayers and rescues me from the pit rather than 1. Christ knows my prayers and rescues me from the pit 2. I believe in Christ The narrative is always first, preceding the abstraction. Reversing these is why I think people come to think of spiritual beliefs as plainly abstract and therefore irrelevant. They are right, so long as they ignore the narrative and its connection to their own experience. This slightly upsets the old agade of Anselm and others: Fides quaerens intellectum (faith seeking understanding). That an inquiry into the truth must begin with faith (rather than seek it). But there is only a problem if one defines faith as an abstraction. So long as faith is understood (as surely Anselm would agree) as a practice of both habit and mind, a lived faith, there is no conflict. For my own part, I do not believe in Christ plainly. I pray and learn and converse in his name and then begin to see uncovered the face of God in his. Then it makes sense to say yes, I believe in him. He is constituted in everything I do. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
re: Primacy of Narrative - 1/29/2006 21:48:47
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