some Donald Miller

This excerpt is pulled from Don Miller's blog, located at www.donaldmillerwords.com

"....The overwhelming majority of the Bible, in fact, is story. We often think of the Bible as creeds and precepts, but it is anything but. Instead, the stories of the Bible work to create an internal map, a guide and compass, teaching us what is worth pursuing and what is worthless, what is meaningful and what is not. Right and wrong, then, are not often taught by lists (truth without meaningful context) but rather through the tools of story. The seminar made me wonder why religious institutions who aim to teach ancient texts don’t have story departments alongside their systematic pursuits. It seems that one might benefit from the other. If scripture, in fact, were an indication of priority, the systematic methodology might be relegated to a small room at the back of campus within which we might find a professor with a calculator and an overhead projector. And this makes me wonder if our focus on creedal reductions were not an attempt to validate ourselvs to the age of reason rather than an attempt to understand what God has spoken.
*note: things I did not say. 1. Creeds are not important. 2. Systematic theology is not a valuable tool in understanding who God is. 3. The Last Temptation of Christ was not a good movie. 4. Seminaries are bad. 5. Calvinists are not capable of passionate love making. Though one-and-a-half items on this list are actually true."