Forums
Author Commoner
Jesus related his message to most during His walk on earth by telling stories...People have always been fasinated by stories...stories teach in a way that people in general can relate to because it has universal themes common to the human race. The message is the most important role in a story which teaches us how we out to live but the story itself captures the human heart. Hope this helps.
Though I am new to it, I have found John Frame's perspectival approach to knowledge helpful (The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God, P&R Publishing). He, I think, would describe norms that God has established, which are enacted situationally (in creation) and experienced by us creatures. I heard a free iTunes recording of an address during which he brought some balancing points at those who would run with 'narrative theology' (read: situational perspective) at the expense of respecting God's 'authoritative propositions' in Scripture (read: normative perspective). Frame spends some time discussing N.T. Wright's, The Last Word: Getting Beyond the Bible Wars.
(see 'Dr. John Frame Inaugural Lecture for JD Trimble Professor/Reformed Theological Seminary'/ RTS Orlando Chapel Messages, available on iTunes, about 20 minutes in, specific NT Wright comments at 27 minutes).
I think that the narrative is propositional in the sense that in the telling of the story, the author makes an appeal to whatever values are held by the listener, so that the listener is beckoned into a change of some sort (whether mental, physical, etc.). The writer intends her or his action to generate some sort of reaction in the listener, which in itself is a subtle command to think and or believe in a direction that may have remained uncharted had the listener not encountered the text. Really, any piece of literature can be seen as propositional, for it is impossible for an author to tell or retell a story without bringing their own biases to the material, as well as at least partially wanting to win others over to their way of thinking. In terms of the Bible (especially texts that are thought to command a certain type of lifestyle from its readers), its writers penned it with certain intentions, and those can be said to be the underlying propositions within the narrative. In other words, the Bible's imperative force comes from the fact that its authors take their positions to be correct based on their own values, many of which are "universals," so to speak (and can hit home with non-Believers, as Kyle was mentioning). When we look at the Bible, the question has to be asked, "Is the command that God gave to Moses, for example, God's command for us, or is God teaching us a principle through the story of God's command to Moses? Paul Tillich covers this in his Systematic Theology (vol 1 I think) when he says essentially that to focus too much on the form (trying to follow the text as imperatives) is to deny the substance (which is a fluid theme that is applicable regardless of what era it's practiced in).