Song, C.S., In the Beginning Were Stories, Not Texts: Story Theology :

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In the Beginning Were Stories, Not Texts: Story Theology Paperback – 14 November 2011
by C.S. Song (Author)
3.3 out of 5 stars 8 ratings



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The Christian Bible is fundamentally a story. Writers, painters, sculptors, artists, and indeed, people of all walks of life live by the telling of their stories. 

Stories are the most basic mode of human communication. Thus it is vital to ask why Christians and above all Christian theologians so often fail to express their faith in terms of story. 

The vast majority of the Hebrew Scriptures, for example, consist of stories. Jesus proclaimed and taught about the Reign of God through stories and parables. At the heart of the Christian faith are stories, not concepts, propositions, or ideas. Given the deep rootedness of the Christian faith in storytelling, this book seeks to address the fact that Christian theology has too often taken the form of concepts, ideas, and systems. This book is an attempt to speak of Christian faith and theology in stories rather than systems. Through stories, both biblical and non-biblical, this book shows how we might reimagine the task of Christian theology in the life of faith today. At its heart is the conviction that in the beginning there were stories and that, in the end and indeed, beyond the end, are stories, not texts, ideas, and concepts.
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Print length

180 pages
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Cascade Books
Publication date

14 November 2011
Product description

Review
A consummate storyteller, C. S. Song has been at the leading edge of contemporary Christian theology for several decades now. This latest work is essential reading for anyone who has grown weary of systematic formulations. Song's faithful narrative is a story well told.
-James Treat
University of Illinois

C. S. Song has been a consistent and prolific writer of story theology. He has given us rich material over the years. Here is more. His work is brilliant, imaginative, metaphorical, instructive, and faithful.
-Archie Smith Jr.
Pacific School of Religion and Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley

C. S. Song the Griot chants with the entrancing cadence of an old-hand peddler of tales. Story-telling is a human practice of meaning-making, he reminds us, and through webs of stories we catch potent expressions of divine mystery and human struggle. Uninvested in cultural-linguistic expositions for narrative classification and hermeneutic regulation, Song simply invites readers/listeners into story worlds across time and cultures so that we may live into the fantastical nature of God-talk and human-talk.
-Mai-Anh Le Tran
Eden Theological Seminary, St. Louis


About the Author
Choan-Seng, Song is Professor of Theology and Asian Cultures at Pacific School of Religion. His recent publications include The Believing Heart.

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Product details
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cascade Books (14 November 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 180 pages
3.3 out of 5 stars 8 ratings



Kindle Customersese sala
3.0 out of 5 stars New perspectiveReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 18 March 2016
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Fresh new way of looking at the Bible. A deep and moving analysis of biblical stories. 3 Star rating.
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C. S. Song. In the Beginning Were Stories, Not Texts

Article  in  Christianity & Literature · March 2016

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In the Beginning Were Stories, Not Texts. By C. S. Song. Cambridge, U.K.: James Clarke & Co., 2012. ISBN 978-0-227-68023-0 Pp. vii-172. $18.90.

Choan-Seng Song is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Theology and Asian Cultures at the Pacific School of Religion in San Francisco. His book In the Beginning Were Stories, Not Texts seeks to challenge “Western biblical scholars and theologians who have monopolized the interpretation of the Bible” (115). He desires to throw “wide open the door of interpretation to men and women from outside the West, to people of different ethnic origins and cultural backgrounds, to women as well men, to the powerless over against those who hold power, whether political, social, religious, or academic” (115). Here is how Song structures the book to accomplish his goal.

The book consists of ten tightly integrated chapters and a bibliography. Chapter headings include, “In the Beginning Were Stories, Not Texts,” “Story Is the Matrix of Theology,” “Theology Rewrites Stories,” “Stories Rectify Theology,” “The Theological Power of Stories,” “In Search of Our Roots,” “Stories within a Story,” “Stories Are Culturally Distinctive,” “Stories Can Be Theologically Interactive.” The final chapter, “The Bible, Stories, and Theology,” provides the reader “approaches” to pursue theology conceived in stories inside and outside of Scripture. Chapter 10 answers this question, “How is … intense theology to be born out of the matrix of stories?” (152). The first step of story theology is, “Awareness of the theological nature of stories” (155). 

For Song, “story is the matrix of theology” (18). This axiom drives his book, challenging the Western penchant for systematic theology. He raises some intriguing questions to make his case, “Who says theology has to be ideas and concepts? Who has decided that theology has to be doctrines, axioms, propositions?” (6). Song’s conclusion? “God is not concept; God is story. God is not idea; God is presence. God is not hypothesis; God is experience. God is not principle; God is life.” He adds, “theology worthy of its name has to be part and parcel of the dramas of life and faith” (116). 

Song ably answers the above questions in the book. And his story-based approach to theology is his major and masterful contribution to the Christian world. The book reminds one of Hans Frei’s The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative: A 

Book Reviews 539

Study in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Hermeneutics (1974), Robert Alter’s The Art of Biblical Narrative (1981), Stanley Hauerwas and L. Gregory Jones’ Why Narrative? (1997), Leland Ryken’s How to Read the Bible as Literature (1984), Kevin J. Vanhoozer’s Drama of Doctrine (2005), and Rob Bell and Brian McLaren, among others, in the emergent church movement in the U.S. One significant difference between Song and the above authors, however, is his entertainment of secular stories in theologizing. 

As one who has lived in Asia for many years, I loved the stories from the various countries from that part of the globe, as well as the more familiar “The Ugly Duckling.” But why include secular stories? How does this relate to discovering the theology of Scripture? Song surmises, “Stories have the capacity to transcend time and space” (162). In secular stories, whether real life stories, parables, fables, folktales, myths, Song searches for themes related to theology within Scripture in these three areas: (1) suffering and faith, (2) sin and death, and (3) transformation of life (131). Why? Because “Whatever form or genre it may take, it is a real life story both to the storyteller and the listener” (132). For example, the real life stories of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Mahatma Gandhi, Hitler, and Martin Luther King cross “oceans and continents” and carry theological truths.

“The Ugly Duckling” serves as a second example in that a metaphor of the gospel can be embedded in a fairytale. To illustrate, the ugly duckling can be transformed into a beautiful swan if she is willing to journey into an unknown world. Song does not seem to be arguing for spiritual equivalency of Scripture and secular stories, rather he perceives the universal of earthiness in both.

While Song provides excellent definitions of the various genres, not all readers will agree with the genres he assigns to various parts of Scripture. Some will interpret this as a weak, subjective view of Scripture that does not give Scripture its historical due. For example, Song categorizes Genesis 2 and 3 as a folktale (137-44). This criticism will not bother Song in that he sees truth embedded in any genre. “It is truthful not in the sense that it is derived from what is called ‘objective truth,’ but because it gives expression to their genuine fear about things beyond their control and their sense of helplessness when faced with crisis of life (137). Others will argue that this book is too one-sided—consider the title. Everything centers on story. It is interesting that one rarely hears this observation in relation to the sole propositional side.

Song, of course, has his reasons for the story emphasis which he documents thoroughly throughout the book (see title chapters above). One of these is, “Theology does not make us see, but story does. A theological thesis does not enable us to hear, but a story does … Story makes us see deeply into the abyss of the human heart desperately looking for the God of love” (69). Even so, Song seems more interested in sequence than superiority. Consider this statement, “John, the author of the Gospel that bears his name, is a brilliant theologian and also a magnificent storyteller. Perhaps he is a storyteller first, then a theologian … it is 

540 Christianity and Literature

from stories, real-life stories, that his theology has developed and grown” (30). 

How will one walk away from a thorough read of In the Beginning Were Stories, Not Texts? That will depend on a number of things. One’s theological background, generation, and pedagogical preferences will no doubt impact the read. Some will find it provocative. Others will find it perplexing or puzzling. Still others will find it provoking and persuasive. 

Wherever the reader lands, what cannot be denied is the ability of story to communicate to the East and the West, particularly to a postmodern audience currently characterized as oral-preferenced learners. These individuals, who John Sachs calls “digitorials,” prefer stories and images over statistics and abstract concepts; screens over printed texts. Is it time to reintroduce a story-based theology to regain a lost perspective (particularly in the West) of Scripture? Is it time to provide propositions a story-based home from which they emerged? Song would answer these questions with a resounding, “Yes!”

Tom A. Steffen

Biola University 

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“글자에 갇힌 하느님? 이야기꾼 하느님!”
기자명 고동주 기자
입력 2010.11.24

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-대만 장영대 송천성 석좌교수 초청 좌담회

대만 장영대학교의 송천성 석좌교수가 한국을 찾아와 ‘이야기신학’에 대해 그와 대화를 나누는 시간이 마련됐다. 이 모임은 한국민중신학회, 우리신학연구소, 제3시대그리스도교연구소가 공동 주최해 지난 11월 23일 서울 서대문구 안병무홀에서 열렸다.


▲ 사진/ 고동주 기자



송 교수는 많은 아시아 신학자들이 서구 신학의 방법론에 사로잡혀 있다고 비판했다. 

그는 서구 신학이 성서 가운데서 (하느님의) ‘이야기’를 빼버리고 사상이나 관념, 본문만 남겨놓았다고 비판한다. 

그는 “이스라엘의 역사를 바라볼 때 ‘약속과 성취’라는 고정된 패러다임으로 바라보기 때문에 현재의 팔레스타인 상황과 동떨어진 신학을 하고 있다”며 예를 든다.

 그래서 “사회학적으로 볼 때 현실에서 팔레스타인 사람들에게 동정을 표하면서도 신학적으로는 이스라엘을 옹호하는 균열에 처해있다”는 것이다.

서구 신학은 실제적인 삶의 경험과 믿음 사이에 커다란 균열을 가져온다고 송 교수는 거듭 비판했다. “에덴동산에서 나올 때 하느님은 처벌로서 여자에게 산통을 주셨다고 하지만, 실제 산모들에게 산통을 하느님의 처벌로 느끼는지를 물어보면, 대부분이 그렇게 느끼지 못한다”는 것이다.

그래서 송 교수는 본문을 해부하는 방식이 아니라 이야기로서 성경을 읽어내야 한다고 주장한다. 서구 신학의 본문 비평에 대해 송 교수는 “해부학자가 시체보관소에서 시체를 해부했다가 다시 원래대로 꿰매는 것”으로 비유한다. 본문 비평을 통해 분석된 성경은 시체에 불과하다는 것이다.


▲ 대만 장영대학교 송천성 석좌교수 (사진/ 고동주 기자)

이야기로서 살아있는 성경을 읽기 위해서 송 교수는 첫째 성경을 고고학적으로 읽을 것을 제시한다. 고고학 발굴에서는 유물을 발견할 때 무엇이든지 그 자리에 그대로 두도록 한다. 성경 역시 그 이야기의 시대와 목적과 기능을 확인할 수 있도록 원래의 위치에서 읽어야 한다는 것이다.



둘째는 성경을 인류학적으로 읽어야 한다고 제시한다. 송 교수는 “이야기는 인간이 가장 중심이 된다는 사실을 망각해왔다”고 지적한다. 그는 성경의 이야기 역시 마찬가지라서 “처음부터 신적인 이야기로 읽힌다면, 매우 거창하거나 시시할 것”이라며 예외를 둘 수 없다고 말한다.

셋째는 특정한 역사적 상황이 특정한 이야기를 창조한다는 것을 이해하면서 읽어야 한다고 말한다. 역사는 관념이나 개념이 아니라 개별적인 인물들, 개별적인 장소, 개별적인 시간에서의 사건의 연속이다. 창세기 12장 1절은 아브라함이 하느님의 부르심에 응답하기 위해서 자신의 고향을 떠났다고 신학자들이 강조하는 본문이다. 그러나 송 교수는 “왜 아브라함이 가나안에 가려고 메소포타미아를 떠났는지에 대한 역사적, 개인적인 이유에 대해서는 전혀 의심이 없다”는 것을 지적한다.

넷째는 성경을 문화적으로 읽어야 한다는 것이다. 송 교수는 “이것은 아시아에 속한 우리에게 가장 중요한 것”이라고 특별히 강조한다. 서구 기독교 문화를 기본 전제로 성경을 이해할 때 서구와 다른 문화를 가진 아시아에서 성경은 죽은 이야기일 수밖에 없다.

다섯째 이야기는 동시대와의 관련성을 포함하고 있기 때문에 송 교수는 성경이 현재에 어떤 메시지를 전하는지 읽어내야 한다고 말한다. 송 교수는 동시대와의 관련하지 않고 성경을 전하는 것에 대해 “삶의 의미를 갈구하는 사람들에게 성경을 페스트푸드로 만들어 주는 것”이라고 비판한다.

마지막으로 송 교수는 위의 노력을 기울이면서 이야기를 종교적으로 읽어야 한다고 강조한다. “왜 이것이 우주에 있습니까? 어떻게 시작되었습니까? 언제 이것이 태어납니까? 왜 나에게 일어납니까? 왜 다른 사람들이 있습니까? 세상에 왜 악이 존재합니까?” 이러한 질문들은 ‘본문’에 갇혀서는 알 수 없고 이야기로서 답을 얻을 수 있다고 송 교수는 말한다.

송 교수는 한국의 초기 민중신학자들이 지배자들의 ‘본문’에 대항하여 민중의 ‘이야기’를 한 것은 정당했으나 그 이야기를 신학적 결론까지 끌고 가지 못한 것을 안타까워했다. 송 교수는 “아시아에 기독교가 전파되기 전에도 하느님이 계셨다면 전통의 옛 이야기들을 통해 하느님을 발견할 수 있어야 한다”고 말하며 한국의 신학자들도 한국의 이야기에서 하느님을 발견하는 작업을 계속하기를 촉구했다.

논평에 나선 죽재서남동기념사업회 김용복 이사장(전 한일장신대 총장)은 신학적 방법론으로서의 ‘이야기’가 잘못 쓰이는 경우를 지적했다. “여호수아가 가나안 땅을 정복할 때의 이야기를 미국 사람들이 아메리카 원주민을 정복할 때, 이스라엘이 팔레스타인을 정복할 때에도 사용됐다”는 것이다. 그래서 김 이사장은 민중이 주체가 되고 해방적인 ‘이야기’가 전제돼야 한다는 것을 짚어 말했다.

이화여대의 서광선 명예교수(전 한국민중신학회 회장)는 송 교수의 강연 중에서 “성경이 서구신학에 노예가 되고 있어서, 해방을 시키려면 성서 속에 있는 이야기들을 끄집어내서 우리가 신학을 해야한다”는 말을 가장 중요한 내용으로 뽑았다. 아울러 “우리도 경주의 에밀레종 이야기처럼 옛날 얘기, 속담 등에서부터 시작해 우리의 이야기신학을 해야 한다”고 제안했다.

송천성 박사는 대만에서 철학으로 학부를 졸업했다. 그리고 스코틀랜드 에든버러에서 신학을 공부, 마지막에는 뉴욕의 유니언 신학교에서 박사가 됐다. 그는 ‘이야기’를 통해 소수자·민중들의 신학 담론에 관한 논의를 발전시켜왔다.

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