As the church, we must “realize that reality is about narration and that we must fully engage in the process of narrating our story in Christ passed down from the apostles in the church until he comes.
“Our relation to the world isn’t to assume a superior position over other narratives but to enter alongside and allow the extension of our Narrative to engage the alternate worlds and their narratives until the eschaton.”
So says David Fitch at the church and postmodern culture. What I like about these paragraphs is they already begin to practice what they preach: our narrative engages “the alternate worlds and their narratives,” not simply “the alternate worldviews and their narratives.” In other words, the way we narrate the world truly affects our interaction with the world itself. Our ideas matter, because they fuel our actions. If we believe the Christian narrative of a loving peace that has overcome (in part, though one day in full) the world’s violence, our interactions with other narratives will be formed by that same loving peace.
What do such interactions founded upon belief in a fundamental peace look like? First, I think they exhibit a quickness to actively listen, to fully understand what another person is saying and why they are saying it. Second, I think they exhibit a generous of spirit that seeks the good, rather than the questionable or heterodox, in what the other person says. Finally, they seek to embrace embrace that good and seek ways to show how Christ is himself the source and fulfillment of that goodness.
