There's a lot of talk today about "story." The emerging church has tried to capitalize on this as an inroad into reaching the postmodern generation. If by story they mean we need to see our lives a narrative, well, that's a great starting place. But let's go further. Let's challenge the assumption that there is not grand metanarrative to history. Let's challenge the notion that there is no real, absolute purpose to life. There is a story that we all find ourselves in and it is recorded in Scripture.
The new book, The Drama of Scripture, will capture your attention by drawing you into this story...God's unfolding story of Redemption. THIS is the story we all find our selves in:
Act One: God establishes His Kingdom: Creation
Act Two: Rebellion in the Kingdom: Fall
Act Three: The King Chooses Israel: Redemption Initiated
Scene 1: A people for the King
Scene 2: A Land for His people
Interlude: A Kingdom Story Waiting for an Ending: Inter-Testamental PeriodAct Four: The Coming of the King: Redemption Accomplished
Act Five: Spreading the News of the King: The Mission of the Church
Scene 1: From Jerusalem to Rome
Scene 2: And into All the World
Act Six: The Return of the King: Redemption Completed
The Drama of Scripture is case-in-point of why biblical theology is so important. We can talk about "story" all we want, but if we ignore the real story that unifies Scripture and the reality that we call "life", we are gonna settle for cheap substitute. Check out the book. Hey, the authors also have an oustanding website that has articles, outlines, syllabi, and even powerpoint slides. Huge amount of quality resources
Link:
The Drama of Scripture Website
5 comments:
Josh,
Hope the move went well. the best of all God has for you and Heidi up north. hope we can hook up sometime to treasure God together and all He is up to in/thru our lives...
As of late, God, through Piper, is rockin my world...see the blog on 'the garage"
Soli Deo Gloria!
DannyO
Danny boy,
So good to hear from you. Nice pic by the way. Heidi and I sooo... want to hang out with you both. I'm slowly getting back to bloggin. Can't wait to read up on yours.
JO
Hi Josh,
Just this afternoon I sat in class at Regent College listening to the very point you're making ... including a reference to Tolkien's lecture "On Fairy Tales", in which he coined the wonderful word "eucatastrophe". So stumbling across your blog just now is a good illustration of that!
I just added "The Drama of Scripture" to my long Amazon wishlist! A good entry-level read is Vaughan Robert's book, "God's Big Picture."
Looking forward to digging through your blog archives!
Bart
Bart-
Glad you're reading Tolkien. "On Fairy Stories" is a great essay that I wish more Christians would take the time to read! What are you studying at Regent? It seems we have a lot of similar interests. Thanks for your recommendation.
Josh
thanks for the witty and winsome comment on my blog re Owen Christopher. Glad to hear you have found The Drama of Scripture so helpful.
I dont recall if I shared this with you, but my thesis has taken a deeply narrative approach to Paul via the influence of Hays, Wright, and to a degree, Witherington. Unfortunately, not many have applied narrative theological methodology to Colossians, largely because it is not considered Pauline by many...anyway, hope to see you this weekend!
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