Gospel Grand Narrative

Gospel Grand Narrative

Nearly every story

mirrors Christ's sacrifice

or the prodigal’s

return home.

I call this ‘Holy’ subtext.

Paradise

The Hook/Fall

1st Adam as Orphan

1st Adam as

Wanderer

Enter 2nd Adam as Warrior

2nd Adam as Martyr

Showdown or

Sacrifice

Paradise is restored

Sin/disease enters the

world.

Separation from the

father

Most stories combine the 1st and 2nd Adam, as most stories are parables of the grand narrative.

Act 2 is filled with suspense like being chased, keeping secrets, and racing against time.

In most narratives, the hero risks his life to find the cure that will restore paradise.

Some villains live

for the sequel

Biblical Meta-Narrative

Paradigm

Absentation

The grand narrative on the previous slide has also been called the Absentation structure or the orphan model.

Here are some more examples. In popular films and television.

Orphan

Model

The

End

..who was friends with

social outcasts.

…tried to take over…

Once upon a time there was a lonely orphan…

And everyone lives Happily

ever after

Things were good until the

evil…

Thankfully [hero] defeats [villain] with

a…

Prince of Persia (2010)

Parables Today

Consulting

Orphan

Model

The

End

..who was friends with

social outcasts.

…tried to take over…

Once upon a time there was a lonely orphan…

And everyone lives Happily

ever after

Things were good until the

evil…

Thankfully [hero] defeats [villain] with

a…

Pirates of the Caribbean (2003)

Parables Today

Consulting

Orphan

Model

The

End

..who was friends with

social outcasts.

…tried to take over…

Once upon a time there was a lonely orphan…

And everyone lives Happily

ever after

Things were good until the

evil…

Thankfully [hero] defeats [villain] with

a…

Batman Begins (2005)

Parables Today

Consulting

Orphan

Model

The

End

..who was friends with

social outcasts.

…tried to take over…

Once upon a time there was a lonely orphan…

And everyone lives Happily

ever after

Things were good until the

evil…

Thankfully [hero] defeats [villain] with

a…

Hunger Games (2012)

Parables Today

Consulting

Orphan

Model

The

End

..who was friends with

social outcasts.

…tried to take over…

Once upon a time there was a lonely orphan…

And everyone lives Happily

ever after

Things were good until the

evil…

Thankfully [hero] defeats [villain] with

a…

The Avengers (2012)

Parables Today

Consulting

Orphan

Model

The

End

..who was friends with

social outcasts.

…tried to take over…

Once upon a time there was a lonely orphan…

And everyone lives Happily

ever after

Things were good until the

evil…

Thankfully [hero] defeats [villain] with

a…

Spider-man (2002)

Parables Today

Consulting

Meta-narrative

This concept of story telling was widely accepted in western society until Lyotard and the book The Postmodern Condition.

Meta-narrative

• Lyotard professes a preference for plurality, arguing that small narratives compete with each other.

Meta-narrative

• Within the narrative purview of literature, Lyotard defines the postmodern condition as a rebellion against the grand narrative idea.

Meta-narrative

After books like The Postmodern Condition, this grand narrative idea was ignored and even laughed at.

Meta-narrative

The rebellion to grand narrative was happening parallel to Campbell and

Vogler developing evidence for cultural and film mono-myth

theory.

1. Ordinary World

2. Call to adventure

3. Refusing the Call 4. Meeting Mentor

5. Crossing the threshold

6. Testing 7. Approach

8. Central Ordeal, rebirth

9. Reward

10. The Road Back

11. Climax,

Showdown

12. Return with Elixir

Act 3 Return

Act 1 Separation

Act 2B Initiation

Act 2A Decent

Classic mono-myth structure

Known World

Unknown World

Meta-narrative

People gravitated to the postmodern view mostly for political reasons.

70’s and 80’s were the ‘me’ generation.

Now it is the ‘we’ generation.

Meta-narrative

Funnily enough, Lyotard later admitted that he had fabricated a significant amount of research to validate the theories he posited in his book.

He even referenced a number of books that never existed.

Meta-narrative

He also considered this book to be the worst book he ever wrote and hoped no one would ever take it seriously.

Meta-narrative

• Unfortunate for him, and the world of literature, this book has been taken very seriously.

Meta-narrative

For more detail

into this story

check out this book.

Specifically

pages 24-27.

Meta-narrative

With the rapid spread of technology, postmodernism

has been eclipsed by transmodernism.

We are all literally connected; narrative and all. Even with

rebellion, this shift has caused more people to return to

meta-narrative theory.

Meta-narrative

According to

Walter R. Fisher,

human communication

is storytelling

and we are all telling

the same story.

Meta-narrative

According to Richardson,

there is evidence that

the same gospel

meta-narrative was

embedded in every culture

before missionaries

met them.

Meta-narrative

For example,

the Chinese word

for righteousness can

literally be translated

into he who is

under the lamb.

Meta-narrative

The Gospel narrative has been embedded in their culture for centuries.

Meta-narrative

Chinese culture also tells the

grand narrative through Shang Ti.

Meta-narrative

In Korea, the name used for the one true God in their version

of the Grand narrative is Hananim.

Meta-narrative

These stories of

‘the one true God’

predate

Confucianism,

Toaism and Buddhism

by an unknown

number of centuries.

Meta-narrative

C.S. Lewis was an

atheist most of his

life but, as a professor

of literature, he became

fascinated with all of

the ‘dying God’ myths

in the ancient

pagan cultures.

Meta-narrative

Tolkien explained

to him that all

these myths reflected

the ‘true myth’

(or grand narrative)

found in the gospel.

Meta-narrative

-J.R.R. Tolkien .

“Pagan stories are God expressing Himself through the minds of poets, using such

images as He found there, while Christianity is God expressing Himself

through what we would call real things”

Meta-narrative

The apostle Paul

makes a similar case

at Mars Hill

when he referenced

the altar dedicated to

the ‘Unknown God.’

About 400 years before Paul steps on the scene

there were three alters in that place, all

dedicated to the one Unknown God.

There was a plague in the land and a prophet

suggested that there is a God above the other

Gods that may be able to deliver them.

When Paul steps on the scene he was simply

reminding them of Gospel meta-narrative that

was already embedded in their culture.

The ones who stayed and listened to him were a

part of that culture.

The ones who left were not, they were visiting.

So his references did not mean much to them.

Christians have a model, here in scripture, to

apply a meta-narrative/grand narrative theory

to present-day film and television culture.