Stories are the fabric of life, culture, communication, and learning. From infancy throughout childhood to adulthood, stories saturate our lives. ‘We humans are by nature and description homo narrans or homo fabulans, the teller and interpreters of narrative’ (Brown & Nandhakumar, 2008, p. 1035). Goldberg (2001, p. 90) claims that the possibility of
referring to a life and not simply to a ‘random bunch of experiences and events’ requires narrative structure to frame life experiences and events. Griffiths (2001, pp. 219, 223) defines narrative as ‘an ordered representation of a series of events or states of affairs that makes it possible for a listener to perceive as meaningful in a way not otherwise possible.’ It is upon this broadened perspective of story as a familiar conveyer of information that the formal definition, pattern, forms, and context of narrative are considered within academic scholarship.
3.2.1. Narrative Definition and Structure
Historically, definition and structure of narrative changed over time from a classic view towards a post-modern understanding. Within academic literature, the term narrative means ‘relating or telling’ (derived from the Latin narrare) of experiential knowledge (gnarus and gnosis). A classic structure of narratives mirrors the plot formation of Greek tragedy. For Aristotle, the narrative plot comprises a beginning, middle and end through which successive moments of time are placed in an intelligible story. In Western culture, listeners expect stories to be structured as having a clear beginning, middle, and end. However, post-modern theorists began to recognize a difference between a temporal succession of events and the storyteller’s emplotting of narrative events. As an example, Sandelowski (1991) maintains narratives consist of actions, events, characters, and settings within an ordered plot to ‘make something out of’ those events as guided by socio-cultural conventions and contexts. Story syntax changed from a classic chronological structure of ‘beginning, middle and end’ to post-modern ‘situation, transformation, and new situation’ (Griffiths, 2001). Similarly, McKee (1997) outlines formulaic story design as stable life (peaceful), destabilized life (tension promotes plan of action) and re-stabilized life
(resolution). Within a typical story and character arch, a protagonist experiences three levels of conflict moving the story towards change: inner conflict (within self), personal conflict (with others), and extra-personal conflicts (with unknown others/environment) that must be overcome. These points of tension work in tandem with mind, will, emotions, along with
social relationships and circumstances to cause the central character to consider and move towards another pathway or position. McKee’s story chart highlights the internal and external conflicts influencing a protagonist’s movement from stable to destabilized life, prompting a different course of action:
THE THREE LEVELS OF CONFLICT
Within his story formulation, Miller (2015) highlights the transformational nature of the story on the central character. He defines narrative as a sense-making device that
organizes random events through a set framework. In his view, basic story structure contains a main character, the ‘hero’ or protagonist who encounters an external conflict
(circumstances), an internal problem (struggle, self-doubt), and philosophical tension (such as good versus evil, fairness). The central character meets an authoritative guide who provides a problem-solving ‘call to action’ which arouses a crisis point and forces the protagonist to make a response. This conflict causes the story to become meaningful by allowing an
opportunity for transformation to occur. The story then moves towards climax and resolution, success or failure. If the protagonist faces the challenge and moves towards action, the
tensions are resolved, and the hero is transformed. Adversity becomes redemptive as the central character learns through presenting pains and problems.
INNERMOST SELF Mind Body Emotions Friends Social Institutions Family Individuals In Society Lovers Physical Environment Inner Conflicts Personal Conflicts Extra-Personal Conflicts
McKee’s Three Levels of Conflict Figure 04.
Conventional story formulations put forth by McKee, Miller, and others agree that conflict and adversity fuel the character arc towards transformation as protagonists change into someone different at the end than they were at the beginning. Likewise, conversion stories anticipate the challenges, changes, and embodiment of transformation as a person moves from one meta-narrative to another. For Miller, conversion is about identity
transformation through learning what is beautiful and what is profane.Based upon this broad- brushed introduction, investigation of conversion narratives should consider the converts’ ‘character arc’ towards transformation:50
Table 05. Conventional Story Formulation Initial State Conflict or
Challenge Move to action Resolution Transformation Guide Beginning Situation Stability Creation Home Middle New Situation De-stabilization Fall Away Crisis Decision Quest End New Situation Re-stabilization Restoration Home Biographical Reconstruction Authority Religious Text Person Group
3.2.2. Narrative Function and Worldview
An individual’s story is not meaningful in isolation, but only as located within a larger narrative. Meta-narratives provide the broader context for understanding experiences and events and become the individual stories of those who embrace them. Just as syntactic order is required to make a narrative comprehensible, an overarching theme is considered important to render narrative events meaningful and coherent, and is by nature inescapable.51 Yamane citing Miller (1990, p. 69) maintains, ‘A sequence of experiences can only be a meaningful sequence if they are ordered and reordered according to some overarching theme drawn from motive, genres, or myths, toward some end goal, given a purpose in the context of the
individual’s life’. Overarching meta-narratives answer basic questions regarding the nature
50 These descriptive terms were used by referenced authors.
51 Even the perspective ‘There is no meta-narrative’ has itself an inescapable meta-narrative view expressing the nature of reality.
of reality and provide structure, meaning, and coherence within community and personal narratives. Worldviews build the storied framework through which experiences, practices, and narratives are understood, lived, and expressed. Per Sire (2004, p. 122):
A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being.
Sire (2004) identified seven basic questions each worldview explains: (1) What is prime reality – the really real? (2) What is the nature of external reality? (3) What is a human being? (4) What happens to a person at death? (5) Why is it possible to know anything at all? (6) How do we know what is right and wrong? and (7) What is the meaning of human
history? For Colson (1999) metanarrative stories include beliefs about the origin and nature of the universe and human life, the central problem(s) human beings face, and the solution(s) to those problems as answered through three questions: (1) Where did we come from and who are we (creation and identity)? (2) What has gone wrong with the world and with us (fall and brokenness)? and, (3) What can be done to fix the world and us (redemption)?
All meta-narratives, both religious and non-religious, define their differing beliefs, tell a story of reality, and commend believers to accept and embody it. Goldberg (2001, p. 156) claims religion requires more than discrete doctrines, principles, and rules. Otherwise, human experience and religious ethics are robbed of their vitality. Narrative structure determines the ‘shape of the story – how things are expressed’ and ‘what is represented by the story’
regarding symbolic meaning and truth’. Stories direct our attention to the world and our activities in the world, shapes our understanding of reality and the way we relate to reality. Finally, the ethical nature of stories is revealed through their inherent moral structure, whether secular or religious. Stories not only describe the world but also prescribe how the world ought to be and might be changed in the future. Narratives communicate what we are doing in the world and the world we intend to achieve. For Griffiths (2001, p. 217),
‘Religious communities cannot perform their functions without making some set of descriptive claims about how the world is, and how human persons ought to behave in it.’ Kling (2014, p. 599) declared the reality of ‘enormous diversity in theological content, ritual expression, and behavioral expectations’ among varying faith communities at different times and places. Within the context of this research, the ultimate storied claims of naturalistic Atheism and Christianity will be reviewed in the next chapter.