I found this NYTimes article intriguing. Camp Quest isn't your typical summer camp, at least not what we might consider typical.
It is an alternative summer camp for those who do not espouse to any sort of spiritual beliefs. The interesting thing, if not the ironic thing, is that the camp is called "Quest."Quest is supposed to be our language. We are supposed to have a patent on the idea of life as a journey of exploring and engaging God in faith.
I mean, all of Scripture describes the life of faith in journey type language, "the exodus," the "wilderness wanderings," the "highway of God" ("make his path straight"), Jesus' journey to Jerusalem, the "Damascus road experience."
Our language has once again been commandeered. Camp Quest celebrates the journeys of men and women throughout the years to certain type of metanarrative, a faith in certain presuppositions that have little to no room for the presence and existence of God.
How do we save and resurrect our own language? How do we embody our own metanarrative so that our shared journeys will lead deeper into the narrative of God, into a deeper union with God? What are your thoughts?
We may not be the Monty Pythons' knights, but we have indeed been sent out with a commission. We are on a quest. The kingdom of God is working a new evolution; God's new creation is breaking in around us. We are those sent on a quest by God to bring others into the story, to journey with them on 'the Way.'
2 comments:
KAT and I were wondering if you would define "metanarrative" for the audience. We think we know what you mean by it, but arene't sure if it's a big narrative or a little narrative, relatively speaking. I think you mean our individual stories as components of God's story in our world, extending through the revelation of the Word under our feet and out into the future and ulitmately, THE END. (I sound silly saying eschaton.) That is, we share in the story of grace and the Kingdom and the gospel, personal chapters in the story of Christ.
DAMASCUS!
JRB
JRB/KAT,
Actually, by metanarrative I don't mean our individual stories, but a big narrative. A metanarrative is the primary story one uses to explain all other stories or experiences in life. It is the overarching narrative that shapes the way we understand and engage the world. It is a controlling narrative that provides the framework out of which we live. (Each metanarrative critiques or challenges the validity and ability of all other metanarratives to accurately explain our experiences.) Postmodernity (and its critique of pure objectivity) has been very important in revealing how metanarratives shape the experiences of individuals and the communities in which they share their stories and find meaning.
All cultures and worldviews have metanarratives that attempt to explain why the world is the way that it is, why things are the way they are. Maybe we have the world because Marduk and Tiamat were in a cosmic battle, which ended when Marduk exacts his power over Tiamat, splitting her body in half and out of it creating the familiar world. Maybe there was a cosmic bang out of which all of the matter in the world exploded from a single, dense, miniscule point. From there the matter began to expand out and, over time, the matter came together to form not only the inanimate material world, but also life itself. Maybe Thor and Odin and Freyja explain the world and natural occurrences.
Now these are just examples of creation narratives that would serve as a part of a larger metanarrative to explain creation, life, and the world as we experience. As Christians, our experiences in the world should be shaped by the narrative of Scripture. It provides the symbolic universe out of which we live. By being immersed in its world we are changed in how we view things. The narrative of Scripture challenges the competing metanarratives that shape and drive what we encounter in the culture around us. For example, in the Hebrew Bible the creation narrative in Genesis 1 stands in start contrast to and competes with the ancient Near Eastern creation narrative involving Marduk and Tiamat above. Likewise, the way Luke describes salvation breaking into the world through Jesus stands in contrast to the metanarrative supporting oppressive cultural structures such as patronage and honor-and-shame in the Hellenistic world.
I could go on, but that is a start. Hopefully it helps explain metanarratives a little bit…
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