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.
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