Narrative Theology: Discovering God’s Great Story

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Tom Steffen
in

Tom Steffen discussed Narrative Theology, emphasizing the importance of viewing Scripture as a collection of stories that shape our understanding of God. He explored different theological perspectives and the impact of oral and written mediums on interpreting Scripture. The narrative approach aims to provide a holistic understanding of God’s message, challenging traditional views of Scripture.

Steffen also touched on the evolution of theological movements and the significance of incorporating storytelling in theological studies. Ultimately, he advocated for embracing the narrative elements of the Bible to gain a deeper insight into God’s intentions and teachings.

Daniel, Jay, and Joshua followed up with a discussion of Paul’s approach to narrative theology in the letter to the church in Rome. Charles Madinger brought it all together and challenged the participants to apply it in their respective ministries.

Read the related journal article and Tom’s book, Narrative Theology.

Check out further resources about narrative theology and download the slides used in the presentation at OralityResources.International.

Resources

Check out more resources on Narrative on GOMAP and corresponding training materials on the I-OS website.

Tom Steffen

Dr. Tom Steffen is professor emeritus of intercultural studies at Biola University. He and his family spent fifteen years in the Philippines with New Tribes, and is one of the pioneers of Chronological Bible Storying. Tom authored numerous books about church multiplication, orality, honor shame, and business as mission. His latest titles are The Return of Oral Hermeneutics and Character Theology.

Comments

2 responses to “Narrative Theology: Discovering God’s Great Story”

  1. Manasseh Dinzado Emmanuel Avatar
    Manasseh Dinzado Emmanuel

    It was a great privilege to have attended webinar forum on “Narrative Theology.” It was indeed educative & impacting. Thank you for enabling me to share it with my team here in Nigeria. Looking forward to the next webinar forum. The Gospel of Jesus Christ must be heard in every corner of the earth.

    Reply
  2. Gerald Polmateer Avatar
    Gerald Polmateer

    Each time I reflect on the subject it reminds me of a time when I heard a man who was studying to be an actor read the scripture in a church I was attending. After he read the text I said to my wife, “Did you hear that”!? I told her it sounded like it had feet. I believe the study of this subject answers many questions about how scripture was taught and how we can teach it with maximum impact. Tom has been a tremendous help to the point where I started writing some discipleship materials using the stories from the Bible. I have begun to take a holistic approach to teaching people to love the lord their God with their heart, soul, mind, and strength, rather than just passing information from the teacher to the student or fill in the blank. Years ago a friend told me in response to what we heard, “That man must be smart, because I didn’t understand a thing he said.” The man used a lot of words, but actually said nothing worth hearing. The question is do we want to communicate and reach people or do we want to impress people.

    Several months ago I changed the way I did things and in the meetings I had each month was a six year old child who came with her dad. I asked the dad if he could work with his daughter to tell one a story from the Bible. Her dad told me she was excited to help tell the story.

    What Tom shared encouraged me more to further my study and to consider how to teach better by putting the pieces together so people understand God’s story. With the elephant story it reminded me that stories provide much more than the pieces. Years ago I was challenged to preach the stories Jesus taught. As I began to do that I got some interesting responses. Those stories do not provide the arrogance some desire so they can look impressive as the Pharisees in Matthew 23:15, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” The Pharisees were increasing their number.

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