Title: Narrative and Forgiveness: the power of stories
1Narrative and Forgiveness the power of stories
2We create stories
- And they create us
- We tell them, listen to them, are formed by them
- Stories have many uses
- they instruct, moralize, socialize, help us
remember who and whose we are.
3The love of stories is universal
4Christians have a grand narrative
- We learn our stories together
- We confess what they mean to us
- We interpret them in light of our context
- We read our audiences
- We change them and they change us
5Example from the Old Testament
- The Exodus central story to Jews and Christians
- Adventure story, with enemies, journey, escape, a
hero, special powers, lots of action - Has been used in many ways through history e.g.
by Jews wanting a homeland, by African Americans,
in our liturgies
6A story of community and freedom
7The ultimate story
- One with ordinary people meeting
- extraordinary events
- God meeting us on the road
- God transforming us, through Christ
- A central plot and central roles
- Theme hope over despair, new being over
stuckness.
8 Central to all Gods work in Christ
9Narrative in philosophy
- Paul Ricoeur narrative as a form of
self-interpretation (socially and culturally
mediated self-definitions) - All narrative identity contains both harmony and
dissonance - Narratives are both lived and told
- Narratives are both innovative and established
10Some helpful language from Ricoeur
- First naivetéenmeshment with the cultures
symbols) - Second naiveté (what is the original meaning of
the symbol, in light of a critical distance from
them?) - Ontological naiveté (plain childishness and
literalism) - Pertinence and impertinence
11Ricoeur at 92
12Ricoeur
- Favored indirect hermeneutics
- Took a detour through structure
- Narrative as emplotment
- Both ethics and description important
13Ricoeur, con.
- Imitation of action rather than action itself
- Stressed plot over thought
- The thematic unity of life
- What sense of direction can we see in human life?
14Ricoeur, con
- Narratives contain both fact and fiction
- Narrative identity mediates between what is and
what ought to be - Narrative identity mediates between temporal
poles
15Poles,con
- Selfhood without support of sameness (keeping
ones word) - Selfhood supported by sameness (character)
16Who is the I in narrative?
- Descartes I think, therefore I am
- Ricoeur not so simple!!
- Narrative identity is located between I and a
rejection of I (the shattered cogito)
17Mediation of extremes in Ricours thought
- Harmony and dissonance
- Lived and told
- Innovation and sedimentation
- Fact and fiction
- The author and the reader
- Voluntary and involuntary
- Exalted and shattered
18Jurgen Habermas
- Communication theory of society
- Critiques bourgeois sociology and systems theory
with story of linguistics - Believes that the spiral of violence begins as a
spiral of distorted communication - International conflict needs uncoerced
communication not armament - Begins with the individual, not social
19- Crisis of modernity While critical reason made
the public sphere possible, capitalism and its
related sub-systems deformed that sphere and the
lifewordl of the family and its networks of
spontaneous association.
20Habermas
- Only by elucidating the linguistic aspect of the
reproduction of social life can the images,
plans, programs and organization of free society
be realized without perpetrating explicit and
implicit repressions. Boris Frankel
21Narrative in family therapy
- Discovered as a way to challenge assumptions
and stuck patterns in relationships - A post modern approach because it
deconstructs what is socially constructed. (I
kind of linguistic revolt)
22Narrative in family work
- Denies we all have one real Self that is
knowable and capable of being mastered - Against modern assumption that we all live in
one world.
23Against a repair theory
- We cant fix people by isolating the causes of
their distress - We cant heal merely by understanding early
insufficiencies and damage
24Origins of narrative
- Freud first to listen to peoples stories
- Michael While and David Epston Australian
therapists who first used narrative with families - Always done in a relational context
- Expansion today into narrative mediation
(couples, institutions, congregations)
25A matter of dynamics over form
- Meaning over structure
- The specific over the general
- Respects each persons experiences
26Goals of narrative work
- 1. Externalize the problem
- 2. Reframe the situation
- 2. Disarm the conflict
- 3. Create some open space
-
27Goals, con.
- 4. Build momentum for changed relationships
- 5. Get unstuck
- 6. Note and label process
28Narrative techniques
- Change the language families and individuals use
to discuss their problems - 3. Increase detachment/distance and flexibility
with regard to the problem - 4. Co-construct a new story about the problem
- 5. Focus less on cause and more on impact (of the
problem/s)
29Goals, con.
- 6. Replace problem-saturated descriptions with
lighter, more hopeful language - 7. Find exceptions and unique outcomes that
contradict the old story - 8. Help people re discover their own strengths
- 8. Replace enslavement with freedomhope for an
Aha! moment
30Characteristics of new stories
- 1. More comic than melodramatic
- 2. Shades of gray replace black/white
- 3. More solidarity with others than self (giving
over getting) - 4. True grief replaces sentimentality
- 5. More assumption of responsibility
- 6. HOPEFUL does not mean having a definite
object for that hope
31Narrative and forgiveness in the Bible
-
- From splitting to integration
- Hard-hearted vs. broken-hearted people
- Unrepentant and repentant hearers of the Word
- Self-trust vs. trust in God
- Self-righteousness vs. trust in Christs
righteousness
32Biblical stories of repentance
- Intended to break the readers heart (e.g.
Nathan with David). - Always include a communal dimension
- And communal consequences
- Always credit God as ultimate author of the
story human beings as co-authors - Often include the sad, bad, and ugly before the
joyful, good, and beautiful
33Narrative and forgiveness
- People are stuck and need help getting unstuck
- Changing focus from the bad guy to the state of
things - Means breaking the rules that have been handed
to us in families, cultures, groups - E.g. you cant be happy if Im not!
34Narrative and the perpetrator
- Nathan and David
- Hamlet The plays the thing, wherein well catch
the conscious of the King! - Hope for those perpetrators capable of change
involves space to recognize oneself in a new way - Doesn't work for all e.g. sociopaths
35An endless task
- Narrative is a dynamic aspect of life
- We are co-creators with the Holy Spirit as we
re-write our stories - We are attempting to match the grammar of our
lives with Gods grammar, the plot with Gods
plot - We can laugh (because free and flexible) at our
own foolish mistakes and trust that we are being
made neweach day!