storytelling

August 30

Stories can meet the spiritual needs of people at different stages of faith development at the same time. Telling stories asks the listener to use his or her imagination. This requires suspending ordinary reality and stepping into a new space in which we are presented with new configurations of being human.
This interactive relationship between the storyteller and the hearer means that a person at the Conjunctive faith stage (Fowler stage 5) is able to explore the reality behind the story whereas a child at the mythical – literal stage (Fowler stage 2) has a strong belief in justice and the reciprocity of the universe hears an affirmation of his/her beliefs.
Kearney (study notes p 43) believes that in our fragmented post modern era storytelling provides a viable form of identity ( individual and communal). It allows fragmented moments, past, present and future to be named, classifies and shaped into a pattern.
Storytelling also invites a more relational way of building community through a shared world. (168 words)