Saturday, January 19, 2008
DP #3: Foreshadowing in Jesus' Geneology
OF the four women mentioned in Jesus' geneology, all four are outcasts in the Jewish society of the day or, at the very least, should have been for the crimes commited, and this is a clear foreshadowing of the compassion Jesus will have for those outcast by the Jewish law of his era and even those shunned for reasons that have nothing to do with Mosaic laws. The noting of Tamar and Bathsheeba (and, arguably, Ruth as well) is an allussion to the compassion Jesus will have for the adulterer in the future. The noting of Ruth and Rahab (both gentiles) foreshadows Jesus' welcoming of other gentiles, even those hostily regarded by Jewish society. Jesus is not just a product of his lineage, but he accepts the significance of the individuals that are a part of it, even those of which another person might be less proud, and it is his ability to accept all parts of his heritage both in hindsight and in the events presented to him, that makes him remarkable.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
DP #2: Why Humans Tell Stories
Stories are a method of teaching the abstract in a concrete form, giving people the opportunity to see an idea, like a particular morality or behavioral value, in the real world. It helps people to understand how they should apply their morality, as well as how to express it coherently. Stories serve the purpose of entertaining while showing, instead of simply instructing, which is what makes them effective, as well as practical.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
DP #1: Why We Tell Stories
The art of storytelling was created to create a bridge between the logical and the applicable, to pass on morality and to establish history.
Storytelling began as a way of relaying personal histories and experiences, a way of telling children about things that elders in the tribe had learned about life and behaviors that would, later, keep them alive. It has been about teaching through entertainment, about establishing behaviors, whether moral or simply necessary for survival.
Early stories probably consisted of basic logical things that now we don't even consider, like what berries not to eat and not to grab a snakes tale, but as such behaviors have become less and less necessary through to development of civilization the behaviors stories have taken on portraying have become less and less about actual survival skills and more about surviving socially and living morally.
Morality has become a fixture in modern culture through religion, which has developed entire mythologies (whether true or not, they are certainly mythologies) encouraging children and adults to adhere to a morality established by societal and religious leaders. These stories are as extensive as the Parables of Jesus (which were Jesus' ways of teaching his moral system) and the Gospels themselves (which were the ways the followers of Jesus who came later would pass on his social and moral teachings).
All of the stories in the Bible have that purpose, as do the mythologies that later developed and followed the ministry of Jesus, from the Mormon church (which established an additional scriptural document with dozens of parables to administer its additional ideals) to the Catholic writer Dante (who created a single parable to elaborate on his personal understanding of Catholic dogma).
Man tells stories to teach while engaging, a method that we employ to teach adults at least as often as children, and a method that we use to control behavior as much as we do to encourage personal reflection.
As far as stories my family tells about me, my father loves to talk about my work with non-profit organizations in Guatemala and Nicaragua. 95% of the time, he does this for the personal benefit of attention, to show how generous those around him are, but there are times when he does it to discuss the morality of assisting those less fortunate than we are, and to give an example of the power of that value, as well as the impact that it's had on my life.
Sometimes people use stories to entertain, sometimes they use stories to warn, but there are also times when people use stories to discuss the positive things that a person can do and the values that a person can have. Values like charity and humility get a lot of airtime this way.
Storytelling began as a way of relaying personal histories and experiences, a way of telling children about things that elders in the tribe had learned about life and behaviors that would, later, keep them alive. It has been about teaching through entertainment, about establishing behaviors, whether moral or simply necessary for survival.
Early stories probably consisted of basic logical things that now we don't even consider, like what berries not to eat and not to grab a snakes tale, but as such behaviors have become less and less necessary through to development of civilization the behaviors stories have taken on portraying have become less and less about actual survival skills and more about surviving socially and living morally.
Morality has become a fixture in modern culture through religion, which has developed entire mythologies (whether true or not, they are certainly mythologies) encouraging children and adults to adhere to a morality established by societal and religious leaders. These stories are as extensive as the Parables of Jesus (which were Jesus' ways of teaching his moral system) and the Gospels themselves (which were the ways the followers of Jesus who came later would pass on his social and moral teachings).
All of the stories in the Bible have that purpose, as do the mythologies that later developed and followed the ministry of Jesus, from the Mormon church (which established an additional scriptural document with dozens of parables to administer its additional ideals) to the Catholic writer Dante (who created a single parable to elaborate on his personal understanding of Catholic dogma).
Man tells stories to teach while engaging, a method that we employ to teach adults at least as often as children, and a method that we use to control behavior as much as we do to encourage personal reflection.
As far as stories my family tells about me, my father loves to talk about my work with non-profit organizations in Guatemala and Nicaragua. 95% of the time, he does this for the personal benefit of attention, to show how generous those around him are, but there are times when he does it to discuss the morality of assisting those less fortunate than we are, and to give an example of the power of that value, as well as the impact that it's had on my life.
Sometimes people use stories to entertain, sometimes they use stories to warn, but there are also times when people use stories to discuss the positive things that a person can do and the values that a person can have. Values like charity and humility get a lot of airtime this way.
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