A Different Kind of Storytelling?

Sometimes speakers and teachers who teach that we need to read the Bible considering the plain sense of the language structure (e.g., a kiss in Song of Songs means...a kiss) elevate material in the epistles over that found in the narratives--as if a directive from Paul trumps the truth taught in a story in Deuteronomy or the Gospel of Luke. It's just easier to conclude from "Rejoice always" that we need to always rejoice than it is to figure out the "take-away" meaning of Eve's interaction with the serpent. Does it tell us something fundamental about women? Or does it tell us only something fundamental about humanity? My friend, Dr. Dorian Coover-Cox, sent me some thoughts which deserve further consideration on the subject of biblical narratives:

I have read little from the experts on the theory of how to preach, teach, and apply narrative, though I suppose I should. Here’s just what I think so far. Biblical narratives need to be read and applied using many of the same skills that we use when learning from the experiences of people around us on an everyday basis, and they should be applied with at least as much authority.

Everyone who wishes to live beyond the age of, say, three must learn from observation and not from personal experience only. We routinely and almost inevitably learn from other people’s stories, whether they are written or not. Just as it is possible to draw wrong principles and misapply parts of stories or even whole stories that we watch or hear from people around us or that we read in a book or a blog, so it is possible to misapply stories from Scripture.

How do we make accurate observations, draw out applications, and apply appropriately experiences of life inside and outside the Bible? How do we learn well from the experiences of others or from our own? That is the big issue, and there, it seems to me, is one place where wise people and wisdom literature fit in, along with other directly didactic literature. We learn good life lessons from watching how wise people do it and from being instructed in how to do it.

All that does not even approach the topic of how biblical (inspired) narrative may need to be observed and applied differently than stories from other sources that we read, hear, or observe in progress every day. I have thoughts about that too.

Perhaps we'll consider them on another day.