The Stories Of Our Faith

Researchers at universities in Durham, UK, and Lisbon, Portugal, recently suggested that the origins of the stories of Beauty and the Beast and Rumpelstiltskin stretch back four thousand years. When the Brothers Grimm began to compile such fairy tales in the nineteenth century, their project fostered a unity between the various German speaking states. The notion that deep in the woods was a boundless store of common stories affirmed the emerging identity of what became a united German people.

That's how a bunch of stories combine to form a powerful narrative. When the people of Judah found themselves in exile in Babylon, they looked deep into their collective soul to discover how they'd come to be there. They looked at their collection of chronicles; of how God created the world, called a people, saved them from famine and slavery, made a covenant with them, and gave them land, king, and temple, before things then went astray.

But then, as with the Brothers Grimm, came the crucial moment: the exiled people of Judah looked at those accounts together and witnessed a faith which taught that God would save them as before, and that, most remarkably of all, they were as close to God in exile as they had been in the Promised Land. When the early Christians compiled the new testament seven centuries later, they discovered the same truth, that God had found a way to save them again and they came to see Christ's suffering, not as God's abandonment, but as the closest humanity had ever come to God's heart.

When I say I'm a christian, I'm naming the story of which I believe I'm a part, and in which I find meaning, truth and purpose. I don't pretend to believe that everyone shares my convictions. I'm not too interested in people telling me what they don't believe, but rather in what they do believe – what story they feel a part of, and most importantly, how that story converges to clarify their identity and purpose.

Story turns to faith when people believe that God has entered their story. Faith turns to life when people say, ‘There's a part for me in that story too.'

Author Info: Andrew Moore

Chaplain Andrew is the Associate Chaplain here at the Campus. Before relocating to Arizona in 2014, Andrew lived and studied in the United Kingdom. Andrew was ordained in the Anglican Church and has worked in a variety of parishes.