“Narrative Theology,” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2d edition, Walter A.

Elwell, ed. (Baker Academic, 2000)

Narrative Theology. The use of narrative in theology, both to understand and order
theological thought, is of recent interest bur represents the persistent concern with the
historical narration of Christian redemption. Deriving its impetus from the various
influences of theories of literary criticism, social science’s interest in personal and
biological histories, and philosophical and linguistic attention to the influence of tradition
and character, narrative has become a common topic within Christian theology.

What Is Narrative Theology? The recognition that vast portions of the Bible are
narrative in form, and that the Gospels in particular, which serve as the interpretive
center for Christian theologians, are narratives is not itself something new. Yet the
suggestion that narrative represents something fundamental to human identity or that
biblical narratives shares common and possibly universal features of narrative tht
should shape how we understand Scripture and theology are concerns that belong to
our current setting.

Characteristically, theologians employing narrative charge that modern theology sought

a prescriptive, organizing principle, theme, or system on the basis of which the biblical
text was to be understood, usually isolated from the actual shape of Scripture as a
narrative or anthology with the characteristics of a narrative. Instead of narrative simply
being the means to what is truly important behind or beyond the text, narrative
theologians argue that it is important precisely because narrative is the revelation of
God’s identity, particularly in Jesus Christ, and in a corresponding fashion for some, in
the life of the church as God’s people. Thus, knowledge of God and our identity are
available through some form of narrative.

Varieties of Narrative Theology. There are at least four discernible ways in which
narrative has been used in recent theology: postliberal, philosophical and ethical,
biblical and literary, and evangelical. These types are not mutually exclusive but
represent various way of employing narrative in theology.

Postliberal concern for narrative stems from the confession that the interpretive center
of the Bible is the narration of Jesus’ identity, and in turn this narration serves as the
basis for early theological characterizations of Jesus’ deity and humanity (in the creed of
Nicea and the definition of Chalcedon). Karl Barth is hailed as a theologian who
conceived of Scripture as “one vast, loosely structured non-fictional novel” (Kelsey).
Hans Frei’s interest in Scripture’s literal sense focused on this literary characterization
of the Gospels as history like (for Frei, the story is the meaning of the doctrine rather
than the doctrine being the meaning of the story), and Ronald Thiemann offered that
Scripture is a narrative depicting God’s identity. Theologians tend to avoid assigning
any particular status to narrativity; narratives are important for Christian theologians
because God uses the story of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the life of the church to
save humans.

Philosophical and ethical interest in narrative represents a socio-historical

understanding of human identity. For H. Richard Niebuhr God’s revelation illumines “the
story of our life” in terms of Scripture’s story; for Stephen Crites there is a “narrative
quality of experience”; and Paul Ricoeur develops a general theory of narrative
interpretation in which a narrativist phenomenology gives rise to human consciousness
and understanding. Somewhat different is the approach of Alasdair MacIntyre, who
argues that morality is rooted in a particular tradition or narrative but in a manner more
akin to social and ethical constructs. Building upon MacIntyre, Stanley Hauerwas
maintains that the church is uniquely God’s story wherein ethical character finds its
appropriate setting, rather than in in the individual or dominant culture. And James
McClendon argues that biography is essential for theology because narrative is
essential to understanding character and community.

The emphasis on narrative in theology parallels interest in narrative within literary

criticism (narrative criticism), biblical scholarship (including interest in narrative theory,
the Bible as literature, or canonical forms of criticism), and in theories of biblical
narratology or poetics (how meaning is made or explained by putting it into a plot). In
these different perspectives narrative encompasses more tan an instance of literary
genre, it is used to understand how texts function and hold together by stressing the
thematic or theological unity of a group of texts or the biblical story viewed as a whole
(creation to consummation). Narrative captures the story, but the narrative is not the
same as the story, exhaustive of the story, or mean to replace the story; yet the story is
not given apart from its telling in narrative.

Evangelical have embraced narrative for theology in a variety of ways (literary,

theological, and ethical) but most commonly to account for the narrational focus of
Scripture in relation to questions of truth and history and thus to form a doctrine of
Scripture (Pinnock). Accounting for the prominence of narrative is necessary in order to
relate historical and theological interests (McGrath) or to account for the identity of
God’s people (Grenz). For example, evangelical theologian Gabriel Fackre construes
narrative in terms of an account of chracters and events in a plot, moving in time
through conflict to resolution; he further distinguishes between “canonical story” (biblical
text), “life story” (personal narratives), and “community story” (the merging of biblical
and life stories in the Christian faith community).

Conclusion. The use of narrative in theology tends to blur the modern distinctions
between strictly historical, literary, and theological disciplines, as well as provide an
alternative to dualistic accounts of story and fiction, history and truth. Narrative
emphases usually concentrate on how the text is received and used within Christian
faith, sometimes deferring questions of historical references (which causes discomfort
among some evangelicals). The study of narrative reminds us that biblical scholars are
practitioners of theology, and theologians are also interpreters of biblical narrative.

James Callahan
 Bibliography. G. Aichele, Limits of Story; R. Alter, Art of Biblical Narrative; C.
Campbell, Preaching Jesus; G. Fackre, Christian Story: Ecumenical Faith in Evangelical
Perspective; H. Frei, Eclipse of Biblical Narrative; Theology and Narrative; Types of
Christian Theology; M. Goldberg, Theology and Narrative; G. Green, ed., Scriptural
Authority and Narrative Interpretation; S. Grenz, Revisioning Evangelical Theology;
Theology for the Community of God; S. Hauerwas, Christian Existence; S. Hauerwas
and L. G. Jones, Why Narrative?; D. Kelsey, Uses of Scripture in Recent Theology; A.
and F. Kermode, Literary Guide to the Bible; G. Lindbeck, Nature of Doctrine; G.
Loughlin, Telling God’s Story; A. MacIntyre, After Virtue; J. W. McClendon, Biography
as Theology; A. McGrath, Passion for Truth; P. Nelson, Narrative and Morality; H. R.
Niebuhr, Meaning of Revelation; T. Phillips and D. Okholm, Nature of Confession; C.
Pinnock, Scripture Principle; Tracking the Maze; R. Ricoeur, Time and Narrative; G.
Stroup, Promise of Narrative Theology; R. Thiemann, Revelation and Theology; T.
Tilley, Story Theology.