Daily archive: May 26, 2006

As is said in the movie, The Da Vinci Code, the Bible wasn’t given to us by fascimile. The Bible was not written, sent to a publisher, bound on paper and leather cover, and stamped with “Holy Bible” on the cover. As I grew up, I had to come to this realization. In fact, I’m still realizing it. What is becoming amazingly clear to me is that the Bible is very much a narrative, a story, and a great story at that.

Without much theological jargon, I’ll simply say that my life is not anymore guided by “the Bible as proposition” so much as it is now guided by “the living Story of Scripture.” Let me clarify it by putting it another way. The Bible was written mostly in narrative, containing different genres of literature, some of which contain statements that could be understood (as we understand in our day) propositions. But we do not live in propositions or principles merely. We live in and are guided by a story much larger than ourselves. Some of the guidance comes by way of proposition, some of it by poetry, some of it by prophecy, but all of it is rooted in narrative.

So when I say that we need to be telling and living the real story of Jesus, I do not merely mean that we are to stand up with our Bibles raised, saying, “THIS is the real story, believe nothing else!” as if that settled the argument. It is important to believe and affirm the truths of the Scriptures, no doubt. But the Church is not commissioned to simply uphold the Bible in this way. The Scriptures are the story, our story, the story that we are to live.

N.T. Wright, an Anglican bishop, historian, and Jesus scholar, gives a wonderul four talks on The Future of the People of God, and it is a wonderful way of seeing how the Church should be carrying out the Story of Scripture in our world. Click here to download these.

I could say more, but more would be less, and I’ll leave it to the Spirit of God to work in the hearts of those who desire to live in God’s Story.

Doug

Doug Stuart is a committed follower of Jesus and passionate about building for the Kingdom of God through education and mobilization. He is a regular writer at LibertarianChristians.com as well as the founder of Living Loud.

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So I’m a little late with my take on The Da Vinci Code, and for good reason. I’m simply a guy who can’t figure out what he believes about controversial issues, so I wait until I’ve found a peaceful harmony somewhere in between the positions already out there.

Actually, that’s not entirely true. My initial reaction, while reading the book a couple of weeks ago, was, “What is the big deal? It’s a bunch of silly connections in paintings done by an artist a few hundred years ago.” Later on I began to see the danger of this book, because weaving together fact and fiction in an entertaining way does not afford the reader to know which is which––something especially confusing for those who don’t know much about the Christian heritage. But then again, the book was written as a novel and published under the fiction section of every bookstore. So readers should be responsible and realize that this fact-fiction line will be blurred for sake of entertainment.

Does the theory that Jesus might possibly have had children with a woman named Mary Magdalene threaten my beliefs? Not at all. Of course, I’m firmly aware that history and New Testament literature are on my side. But not everybody knows this. Our society is increasingly aware that the knowledge we have received from history books is knowledge written by those in power, with money, and most likely with an agenda. And it only takes a few history lessons about the Inquisition, Native American domination, and slavery to realize that those who claim the name of Jesus are either misguided, misinformed, or simply do not have the world’s best interest in mind. This kind of skepticism raises eyebrows, and when alternate story, a story that is not so far away from conceivability, arises, the story the world has come to dislike has altogether become even more unlikable. In this way, the theory can become dangerous and threaten the faith of many.

That’s where The Da Vinci Code has its appeal: it is a new account of history based on a popular appeal to a common thread throughout all literature that intrigues just about everyone: conspiracy. Whether it be government conspiracies or religious conspiracies, people love to read about “other ways of looking at it.” And The Da Vinci Code, in good measure and in excellent style, delivers just what people are looking for.

So whether or not the underlying premise of the story is true, and whether or not there is a “ton of facts” that Dan Brown has either ignored or was misguided by, is not the point. We are not responsible for his mistakes, nor are we responsible to correct him in condemnation. Brown himself looks at the rise in discussion over Jesus as “absolutely wonderful,” because he is a big fan of discussing and discovering faith in our world.

Here is the irony: Dan Brown has written a compelling novel, and the Church has responded by condemnation and reactive propositions. The solution is not to oppose facts alone (as important as it is to engage the debate on that level). The solution is to make compelling the real story of Jesus to our world. What will happen as we tell a story––better yet, as we live the story––that is compelling enough for people to hear and to live, other stories will not have such an impact in our world. Yes, they will shake a few people, but the Church can simply live its life, saying, “Come, here’s the way of truth, let’s walk in it together.”

Doug

Doug Stuart is a committed follower of Jesus and passionate about building for the Kingdom of God through education and mobilization. He is a regular writer at LibertarianChristians.com as well as the founder of Living Loud.

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