Such a great perspective, as always, Glenn. I am excited to get this book from my own local bookstore (totally worth the wait). It's so interesting- I'm writing a memoir right now and often find myself rearranging the details very intentionally in order to tell the story in a more cohesive way, one that lands in the hearts of my readers. This is a really collaborative process, one that relies heavily on listening to the "muses" as I call them. It's not a factual rendering of my past, not exactly- though I'm certainly not lying about what happened- it's just that all of us who tell stories understand that truth-telling is a deep, grounded, rooted process of listening and sorting and dancing with the story itself. The gospels get so truncated by attempts to make them something they were never intended to be. Anyway, a long comment here just to say thank you for articulating this so beautifully in your post today.
Thanks for the reading and review. Elaine is scholar I highly respect, and she seems to be a gracious person of Christian faith.
I appreciated your observation that you're learning "something doesn't have to be true to be true." Reminds me of a good Jewish friend who told me he once asked his Rabbi if the Hebrew Scriptures were true, to which his Rabbi replied, "The Bible is true and some of it actually happened!" So, I often remind myself - and sometimes questioning parishioners - that both facts and fiction constitute truth for Jesus told parables - fictional stories - to teach divine truth."
Such a great perspective, as always, Glenn. I am excited to get this book from my own local bookstore (totally worth the wait). It's so interesting- I'm writing a memoir right now and often find myself rearranging the details very intentionally in order to tell the story in a more cohesive way, one that lands in the hearts of my readers. This is a really collaborative process, one that relies heavily on listening to the "muses" as I call them. It's not a factual rendering of my past, not exactly- though I'm certainly not lying about what happened- it's just that all of us who tell stories understand that truth-telling is a deep, grounded, rooted process of listening and sorting and dancing with the story itself. The gospels get so truncated by attempts to make them something they were never intended to be. Anyway, a long comment here just to say thank you for articulating this so beautifully in your post today.
So good! Thanks for sharing my friend! ❤️🙏🏻🥳
Thanks for the reading and review. Elaine is scholar I highly respect, and she seems to be a gracious person of Christian faith.
I appreciated your observation that you're learning "something doesn't have to be true to be true." Reminds me of a good Jewish friend who told me he once asked his Rabbi if the Hebrew Scriptures were true, to which his Rabbi replied, "The Bible is true and some of it actually happened!" So, I often remind myself - and sometimes questioning parishioners - that both facts and fiction constitute truth for Jesus told parables - fictional stories - to teach divine truth."
Peace to you in these tumultuous times, Ed Koonz