Photo by: Bob AuBuchon
In screenwriter Robert McKee’s book, Story, he says that the question of whether plot or character is more important to a story is as old as Aristotle. He went on to say that Aristotle weighed each and concluded that story is primary, character secondary.
McKee goes on to explain that this perspective on storytelling held until the nineteen century when consensus turned toward the opinion that what a listener/reader wants in a story is fascinating, believable, complex characters.
McKee, himself, believes that the personal choices that form the plot of a storyline cannot be separated from one another.
He goes on to show his fascination with the way a plot or subplot answers the question, “At the heart of a person’s humanity what will we find? Is the person “loving or cruel? Generous or cowardly?” His opinion is that “The only way to know the truth is to witness how someone make choices under pressure…Pressure is essential. Choices made when nothing is at risk mean little.”
Since McKee is writing about screenwriting and fiction, I’m wondering whether what he writes about story can add to our conversation about how to understand the Bible? How does the Author of the Bible tell the story about the people he wants us to know about? Does he give us men and women who are simple or complex? Are they believable under pressure?
Or does the way the Bible ends leave us with the conclusion that all that matters is whether we choose to put our faith in the Savior who then in turn becomes our legal proxy (acting in their behalf) for entrance into the Kingdom of God?
Photo by: Steven Coutts
Does the Author of the Bible develop his characters so as to give us a story that is complex and deep enough to explain the best and worst of our own ongoing desires and decisions?
And when his story gives followers of Christ reason to find their identity and security “in Christ,” –does that do justice to the complexity and depth of who we— and who our God really is? (Or has the answer that “God no longer sees us. He sees his Son” been used to miss the richness of what is really happening?)
I hope thoughtful answers to these questions will help take us deeper in our understanding of the love, goodness, and wisdom of our God. May our answer to these questions help us to keep immersing and finding ourselves in the One story that explains all others!
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