The Power of Story

"The Good News of the Return of the King," by Michael Jahosky talks about parables, myths, and fairy stories, and how they can reach us in ways that having things spelled out to us can't. The truth is often more easily seen in a story than in our every day lives.

"...[C.S.] Lewis says, 'It is only while receiving the myth as a story that you experience the principle concretely....[Charlie W.] Starr summarizes, 'When we take a meaning out of a myth, we turn it into an abstract statement, an idea. When we leave the meaning in the myth and not try to turn it into propositional language statements, the meaning remains.' This does not mean that we should not interpret, but it does mean that our interpretations are secondary to the experience of the story itself....That is why Lewis said, 'In the enjoyment of a great myth we come nearest to experiencing as a concrete what otherwise can only be understood as an abstraction.' There are, in other words, some truths that can only be understood through story."

As I was reading that, one story came rushing to mind. In the eighth series of Doctor Who, Clara threatens the Doctor with the loss of his Tardis in an attempt to get what she wants (the accident that killed her boyfriend to never have happened). He says no, and she goes ahead and (she thinks) destroys all the keys to the Tardis. She wasn't actually successful, as he was ultimately in control of the situation, but she has shown how far against him she would go. And then comes this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzCghIPHFI0

It stopped me short as that truth hit hard.

And this is why story is so important. This is how story can convey truths that become mere head knowledge otherwise. Even now, having thought of this scene many times since, it doesn't convey the same impact as it did the first time I saw it, as it's been taken out of the magic of the story, and it is that magic that is conveying that truth. Stories are vital for our understanding of reality, and ultimately then, for our understanding of God.