N.T. Wright Project

This week, my fellow scholars and I fell in love - or at least I did - with Tom Wright’s critical realist epistemology. By employing this term, Wright argues that the process of knowing something can be conceptualized as humans conversing with events within the context of story. An example might be in order. In writing this blog, I am not simply aware of typing on an object called a computer. I am, Wright would contend, a “story-telling human” interacting with an object in a “story-laden world” (New Testament and the People of God, p. 44). Thus, it is as one shaped by stories (e.g. the narratives of Scripture, political headlines, Tom Wright’s books), that I sit down to write at my personal computer. And as a story-shaped human, I have believed the advertising stories about the “personal” computer; I store pictures and write journal entries on it - it is mine.

But the question now becomes: what do stories have to do with politics? Everything! Wright observes that “stories of how things were in the Depression are used to fuel sympathy for the oppressed working class; stories of terrorism are used to justify present right-wing schemes…Stories thus provide a vital framework for experiencing the world. They also provide a means by which views of the world may be challenged“‘  (NTPG, p. 39, emphasis mine).

Obama tells a story about America. So does John McCain. To sample Harvard public policy professor Marshall Ganz, each presidential candidate weaves a story of self, a story of us, and a story of now. Senator Obama portrays himself as a hard-working American who emerged from a single-parent home, attending the nation’s finest schools and serving the public as a biracial, post-partisan, bridge-building politician. Senator McCain presents himself as a deeply patriotic man of character, making his mark as an independent-thinking, reform-minded public servant. Both candidates spin the old thread of American exceptionalism - we are the city on the hill, the greatest nation on earth, etc. The critical difference between the two candidates lies in their story of now. Both senators accept the basic storyline of “the old politics is broken, it’s time to alter our course”, but Obama’s “change “ and McCain’s “reform” contain sharp differences on how America can best pursue a different course.

Christians, like everyone else, are influenced by the public narratives of pundits, politicians, publishing comglomerates and so on. But believers are supremely influenced, or at least should be, by the stories of Scripture. Our stories provide ample resources for challenging views of the world - including those of Senators McCain and Obama. I am quite familiar with the party platforms, and have a pretty clear idea about who I will support. And yet despite alluring tempations, I refuse to “put my trust in princes” and thereby underutilize our Story’s ability to critique political accounts of what kind of country America should be and what kind of world we ought to live in.

Will you join me?