Narrative Theology

Ritual Water, Ritual Geist: An Application of Narratological Analysis to Luke's Development of Christian Initiation from John the Baptist to Pentecost

by David McCollough

This paper employs narratological analysis, especially focalization, the sequential development of entity... more This paper employs narratological analysis, especially focalization, the sequential development of entity representations and intertextuality, to demonstrate that through Luke 3, 11 and Acts 2, Luke prescribes a liminal ritual complex of initiation composed of four elements: repentance, water baptism, prayer and xenolalic experience understood as Spirit reception. The paper briefly explains focalization (the lens through which a narrator looks at something) and entity representations (ERs, the mental construct of a character, motif, procedure, network of relationships, etc., built up lineally through a narrative). It addresses the intertextual role of Isaiah and Malachi in the formation of the initiation ER, and implications of lukan Sinai imagery.
The paper traces the cumulative development of the initiation ER from John the Baptist’s prophecy of Spirit and fire baptism, to Jesus’ baptism, to Jesus’ teaching on prayer for the Spirit, to Pentecost. Luke’s use of priestly imagery is found to color his portrayal of believers. The Pentecost narrative is shown to redundantly focalize the xenolalia experience, and to identify it for the reader as the Spirit experience prophesied by Joel and promised by Jesus, and to prescribe that same xenolalic experience as a boundary marker obtainable through repentance, water baptism and prayer.
The paper will demonstrate that notwithstanding a strong, undeniable vocational role, narratological analysis indicates Luke subordinates Spirit experience under a broader soteriological heading which can be further refined as initiatory with a liminal aspect, thus ecclesiological.

Narrative and Theology: A Reformational Take on Telling Stories about God

by Jeffrey Hocking

Presented at the 2011 Kuyper Center Conference, Princeton Theological Seminary

The (Com)Motion of Love: Theological and Moral Formation in John Woolman's Itinerant Ministry

by Jon R. Kershner

New Jersey tailor and Quaker minister John Woolman (1720-1772) set out for the Pennsylvania frontier in 1763 as Native... more New Jersey tailor and Quaker minister John Woolman (1720-1772) set out for the Pennsylvania frontier in 1763 as Native American-British tensions escalated.  Considering the motivation for his journey Woolman wrote, “Love was the first motion, and then a concern arose to spend some time with the Indians, that I might feel and understand their life and the spirit they live in...”  During his adult years Woolman went on some 30 ministry journeys, averaging one month traveling a year.  Woolman's Journal demonstrates that a pattern of moral formation resulted from these ministry travels.  Specifically, Woolman's abolitionism grew out of spiritual convictions which arose while on a trip to the southern American colonies.  As Woolman continued to travel, his moral austerity intensified and the theological integration of his ministry deepened.  In his last decade he traveled on foot “that by so traveling I might have a more lively feeling of the condition of the oppressed slaves, [and] set an example of lowliness before the eyes of their masters.”  This paper explicates the relationship between the physical activity of itinerant ministry and the formative effect it had on Woolman's social and theological convictions.  Additionally, my research argues that Woolman used the aesthetics of travel in order to model theologically integrated social conviction.  Thus, the road trip itself was understood by Woolman as a prophetic activity, which often led him into conflict with his own religious community.  In short, this paper explores the influence of travel on ethical formation in the Eighteenth-Century by addressing the formative effects of travel on the traveler as well as on those visited along the way.

Desperately Seeking Someone: Attachment Theory and the Danger of Speaking God's Name

by Graeme Fancourt

Published in International Association for the Study of Youth Ministry, 8:1 (2009), this is a modified version of my MA dissertation that explores the role attachment theory plays in the faith development of adolescents. It attempts to go beyond the notion that calling God by a parental name is somehow more problematic than using any other name, given that all names imply relationship, and so have implications for developing attachment systems.

This paper is a praxis-driven theological reflection upon Attachment Theory and Religious Faith, specifically... more This paper is a praxis-driven theological reflection upon Attachment Theory and Religious Faith, specifically questioning the extent to which disruption of the attachment system during adolescence influences how the name of God might be heard. Attachment theory is presented using a story alongside an explanation of the work of Simone de Roos and Lee Kirkpatrick. Following an analysis of their findings, it is suggested that Attachment theory is a development of Feuerbach’s projection critique of Christian faith within psycho-social discourse. Three theological reflections upon this analysis are presented and reviewed: a literalist perspective, a pure-narrative theological reflection, and a third approach, built on the work of Sallie McFague, which emphasises the reciprocal nature of the Christian names of God. This paper proposes that praxis
operating in the mode of the first two reflections may encourage
either a superstitious invoking of God’s name, or an idealisation
of the church as community. The aim of the final theological reflection is to inform a ministry that encourages sharing in God’s names as a redemptive resource for a Christian understanding of self-formation.

The Participative Self: An Enquiry into the merits and limits of a Theological and Postmodern Anthropology

by Graeme Fancourt

This is my doctoral thesis, so if you think it reads like an exam paper, that's because...
In many ways have tried to too much with too little space, but the three main concerns in the paper are:
What is this thing called the 'Emerging Church', and what does it think it is up to?
Can postmodern and theological discourses really be considered as suitable dialogue partners?
Can Practical theology, drawing on both academic and practical resources, deal with proper theological questions (in this case, theological anthropology)?

'The earth no longer a void': Creation Theology in the Novels of Charlotte Bronte

by Simon Marsden

Literature and Theology 25.3 (September 2011), 237-251.

"The Seductions of the Garden: The Genesis of Hermeneutics as Critique"

by Bernard M. Levinson

On Interpretation: Studies in Culture, Law, and the Sacred = Graven Images 5 (2002): 95-99. Reprinted and updated in:
Bernard M. Levinson, "The Right Chorale": Studies in Biblical Law and Interpretation (FAT 54: Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008), 40-47;
paper edition: Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2011.

“The Seductions of the Garden and the Genesis of Hermeneutics as Critique” explores the relation between narrative and... more “The Seductions of the Garden and the Genesis of Hermeneutics as Critique” explores the relation between narrative and law in the Bible. Recent years have seen renewed interest in the story of the “fall” narrative in Genesis 2–3, with two volumes published just in the last years. However, my own interest in the story was first awakened through John Milton, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and the fascinating Russian Jewish philosopher, Lev Shestov, who was influenced by both Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, and who deployed the narrative of the fall for his powerful, if eccentric, critique of the western philosophical tradition.7 For these thinkers, the narrative is not an account of the loss of grace. Rather, it represents a symbolic structure of experience, a moment that is enduringly present and that is repeated both within the lives of individuals and from generation to generation. Their readings draw powerful connections between the Bible and the tradition of western literature and thought. For Hegel, “Der Sündenfall ist daher der ewige Mythos des Menschen, wodurch er eben Mensch wird”; it represents “der ewige Geschichte des Geistes.” From this perspective, the fall is not a moment in past time but in literary history and the imagination, essential to human self-reflection.

Keywords:
Genesis 2-3; Eve; Bonhoeffer; Kant; O felix culpa; the fall story; literary hermeneutics; narrative hermeneutics; narrative theory; fall upwards; serpent; philosophical hermeneutics; literary approaches to Bible;Garden of Eden; Milton; relation between narrative and law; law and narrative; der Sündenfall; fall of man; die Paradieserzählung; Kenneth Burke; on the first three chapters of Genesis; "free to stand"; Deut 30:19; Dtn 30:19; Gn 2-3; Deut 5:3; Dtn 5,3; covenant of life; eternal life; mise en abyme; Adam.