I enjoyed your article on narrative truth but thought I might encourage you on a specific element needing some correction. The impression I received was that the sacred text of the Bible does not contain a complete moral code. While no document can possibly contain a ‘complete’ list of do’s and don’ts for every situation, (including all the narrative stories that could ever be written put together), it is incorrect to say the Bible is not ‘complete’ morally. The scriptures are holy, infallible, and God inspired. By their very nature they are complete in a moral sense, that is, they lack nothing morally. To deviate from this understanding of scripture is to deviate from the basic foundations of Christian theology. I don’t believe it is your intention to do this. Instead, I believe it is your intention to provide help for what you see as a broken system of truth-delivery to the masses. For this I commend you. I only would warn you to be careful in over generalizations and exclusionary statements about other truth delivery systems being inferior, (preaching, presentation of clear doctrinal beliefs, the use of sacred texts as establishment of truth), because you are a strong believer in the ability of yours.

My fear is you may turn people off to an otherwise good point about the ability of narrative structure to present truth. (For example, implying the Bible is incomplete morally is usually a deal breaker for most Christians.)

You are a member of the body of Christ, and your specific gift is to present the message of truth to people in story. This means you should work your best to do so. It is counter productive however to compare your mode with the mode of others in the body, (more straightforward preaching perhaps), and claim theirs is somewhat inferior in nature. I think a more productive method would be to address the reasons why their mode has been less effective than it could be, and how an inclusion of your mode could be helpful as an addition to their mode.

For example, you make a statement about people in the Bible Belt having trouble drinking in moderation and then tending to term all drinking as a sin. You wonder if this is due to their possessing a black-and-white mentality on issues relating to behavior, and if presenting a story format of truth to them would better.
I would add that a combination of both straight doctrine and presentation of story examples would be a more complete solution. -As in fact, people who fall into the fear/guilt/shame cycle you discussed are not fully embracing a doctrinally accurate view of God’s love and grace as is presented in the Scriptures. A good Bible teacher can correct many of these errors by using the Scriptures alone. Or, both a narrative story presentation and correct doctrinal teaching could work together in this matter.

With that said I want to state again I think yours is a wonderful concept to help bridge the gap in presenting people with truth without them feeling preached to. Indeed it may be more effective than any other mode for certain times and places. But in developing a complete theory of how to both determine and present truth let’s not forget that Jesus worked both by telling parables (story), and in speaking direct ‘doctrinal’ truths (preaching, referring to scripture as truth).

Anyway, I wish you the best and admire you very much as a writer and a man. Looking forward to reading your new book!

Peace