Revelations and Story: Narrative Theology and the Centrality of Story : Narrative Theology and the Centrality of Story

Revelation and Story explores the relationship between the theology of revelation and the theology of story or narrative theology. Mediating between German systematic theology's concern for revelation and current Anglo-Saxon interest in narrative theology and centrality of'story', this book illuminates both traditions. Exploring'revelation'and'story'from both theological and philosophical perspectives, this book connects these concepts with questions of the authority of religious and literary texts, particularly the Bible. Believing that God's revelation precedes and forestalls all human perception of God, all speech about God, and every attempt to experience anything about God or know Him, leading scholars from both Anglo-Saxon and German traditions are brought together to present a diverse range of conceptions relating to how God's revelation occurs, resulting in a new theory of the relation of revelation and story which transcends the traditional cultural divide. Stanley Hauerwas contributes the Foreword. Revelation and Story offers a valuable new contribution to systematic theology, hermeneutics, and the study of the authority of Scripture, as well as presenting insights into important overlaps between British and German theology. This book will be of particular interest to scholars and students of philosophy and theology, and to students of literature and literary theory with an interest in hermeneutics. "This title was first published in 2000. From the work of Hegel and Schelling to the dialectical theology of Barth, Bultmann and Gogarten, "Revelation" has developed a long, rich tradition of diverse thought, as well as many misunderstandings. Meaning, first and foremost, "God's encounter with those to whom God wishes to communicate God's own self", Revelation seeks to be recounted and communicated to others. As a theological expression, Revelation aims to direct our attention to the modes and areas in which we have a basis for expecting encounter with God - through stories, nature, the world as creation. From a rediscovered emphasis on "story", narrative theology has emerged - a concept the English-speaking world has welcomed for its neutrality between history and imaginative fiction and stress on narrative rather than doctrinal dimension of biblical text. This volume brings into relationship a concern with theology of revelation and an interest in the theology of story or narrative theology."--Provided by publisher Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Foreword -- List of Contributors -- Introduction -- 1 'Scriptural Faithfulness' is not a 'Scripture Principle' -- 2 Story and Possibility: Reflections on the Last Scenes of the Fourth Gospel and Shakespeare's The Tempest -- 3 Disclosing Human Possibilities: Revelation and Biblical Stories -- 4 Reading the Bible Theologically -- 5 Revelation as Gestalt -- 6 Allegoria: Reading as a Spiritual Exercise -- 7 'Revelation' and 'Story' in Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic -- 8 Does the Gospel Story Demand and Discourage Talk of Revelation? -- 9 The Productive Vagueness of an Untranslatable Relationship -- Bibliography -- Index "Revelation" has developed a long tradition of diverse thought, as well as many misunderstandings. This text relates a concern with theology of revelation and an interest in the theology of story or narrative theology. The contributors explore a range of conceptions of how God's revelation occurs.