Criswell Theological Review 7.2 (1994) 65-81.
[Copyright © 1994 by
digitally prepared for use at
Gordon and
COSMIC MAPS, PROPHECY CHARTS,
AND THE
A BIBLICAL REALIST LOOKS AT
THE ECLIPSE OF OLD
TESTAMENT NARRATIVE*
JOHN SAILHAMER
Scholar in Residence
Northwestern College
1.
Introduction
There is a
general recognition today that our society has lost its iden-
tity. It has lost its sense of a common story.
Recently in a television in-
terview, Ken Burns, the writer and producer of
the PBS series
"Baseball,"
was asked why he chose to devote such time and attention
to the
game of baseball. His answer was surprising, but insightful.
Baseball, he
said, is the only common story that Americans still share.
A generation
ago, Americans had a much more comprehensive story.
That story
was rooted in a shared experience. It was, moreover,
founded upon
a common religious heritage. That heritage was, in fact,
a
continuation of the Biblical story. With the collapse of that story,
however, the
only remaining thread in the common bond of American
society is
now baseball. Thus Ken Burns, the PBS producer, set out to
tell the
story of baseball. It was an effort, he said, to bring our country
together.
Without a story to define us as a
nation, we cease to act as a nation
and, really, cease to
be a nation. I think we would all agree that the
loss of
our nation's story is a serious problem today and affects every
part of
life. There is, however, an even more serious loss of story. The
Christian
Church also has a story. That story is told in the Bible. To the
* This
article represents the two lectures read for the annual Criswell Theological
Lecture,
February, 1995.
66 CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
extent that
our individual stories are linked to the biblical story, our
lives have
meaning and purpose. If we should ever lose that story, or
if that
story should be changed in any way, we will quickly forget
who we
are. One of the central tasks of Christian education is to en-
sure that
the biblical story continues to be told. An equally important
task is
to ensure that the story is preserved intact. It is my contention
that the
biblical story is in danger today of being distorted, accommo-
dated,
changed, and ignored. Some of those pressures are exerted by
the
Bible's own best friends.
2. The
Biblical Story
I want to address the issue of the
biblical story. I want to talk about
what
makes it tick. Why is it so important? What threatens it today?
As my title
suggests, I want to approach the biblical story under
three
headings: 1) cosmic maps; 2) prophecy charts, and; 3) the Holly-
wood
movie. These three headings, I think, point to, or at least illus-
trate, the essential function of the biblical
story. That function is to give
us a
sense of the nature and purpose of God's world. In the words of
N. Goodman,
the biblical story is a "way of worldmaking."l
2.1.
"Cosmic Maps"
Let's begin by looking at "cosmic maps." I am taking the
idea of a
"cosmic map" from the Yale theologian G. Lindbeck. In his book, The
Nature of
Doctrine, Lindbeck addresses the question of the nature of
religion and
theology in a "post-liberal" age. What he means by a post-
liberal age
is that in his view classical liberalism has come to an end.
We live in
an age which has come to appreciate the essential limita-
tions, indeed fallacies, of classical
liberalism. Liberalism was born out
of the
Enlightenment notion that reason, or human experience, is the
ultimate
source of truth. Religion, according to the Enlightenment and
modern
liberalism, consists of a basic "core experience" of reality. Every
human
being has such a "core experience," or at least is capable of hav-
ing one. Theology is the specific, culturally
conditioned expression given
to
one's "core experience." Religion and theology are like the eruption
of
a
volcano. The core molten lava of religious experience breaks through
the
crust of the earth's surface at various places and forms a volcano. A
whole
ecological system then forms around the volcano. That system is
analogous to
theology. Liberalism's view of the religion and theology
1
Nelson Goodman, Ways of Worldmaking,
pany, 1978.
John Sailhamer: ECLIPSE OF OLD TESTAMENT NARRATIVE 67
of the
Bible, for example, is that the biblical story is
of
their "core experience." Christianity is also a volcano that has
broken
through the
earth's surface at a particular time and place. Liberalism
leads to
pluralism because all "religions" are merely the cultural-bound
theological
articulations of a common "core experience." Behind all re-
ligions lies the same deep structural "core
experience." All religions are
expressions of
the same basic truth.
Lindbeck argues that liberalism is simply wrong.
There are no
universal
"core experiences." That is not the way cultures and religions
work.
What we know about religions today, says Lindbeck,
suggests
another,
quite different, explanation. Religion is an essential feature of
culture.
Religion is a component of culture in the same sense as lan-
guage is a component of culture. Religion and
language are what cre-
ate the
basic semantic structures of culture. They are not created by
culture.
They create culture. Language gives a culture its essential sur-
face
structures of meaning. It defines for a culture the ways it organizes
its
world--both the physical world and the world of its ideas. Religion
gives a
culture its essential deep structures of meaning. Religion tells
a
culture what is real and not real, what is true and what is false, what
is good
and what is evil. Religion tells a culture what lies behind the
world
defined for it by language. Religion tells a culture about the na-
ture of God, humanity, sin, and redemption.
Religion gives a culture the
grammar with
which it seeks to express itself.
In other words, for Lindbeck, there are
no common "core experi-
ences," at least not any that can serve as
a meaningful deep structure.
Religions,
like individual languages, have their own distinct idioms. Each
religion has
its own unique way of defining human experience. There
are no
common deep structures. Human experiences are essentially
semantically neutral until they are refracted through a particular reli-
gious prism. Within cultures, faith and
religion serve as interpretive
schemes
which, like language, a culture uses to give meaning to human
experience.
"Religions are seen as comprehensive interpretive schemes,
usually
embodied in . . . narratives. . . which structure human experience
and
understanding of self and world."2 Thus the biblical narratives
and
their
story, as Lindbeck sees it, are "similar to a
(linguistic) idiom that
makes
possible the description of realities, the formulation of beliefs,
and the
experiencing of inner attitudes, feelings, and sentiments. . . it is
a
communal phenomenon that shapes the subjectivities of individuals
rather than
being primarily a manifestation of those subjectivities."3 To
2 Lindbeck, 32.
3 Lindbeck, 33.
68 CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
become
religious in such a scheme "involves becoming skilled in the
language, the
symbol system of a given religion. To become a Christian
involves
learning the story of
terpret and experience oneself and one's world in
its terms."4 In the
model of
culture suggested by Lindbeck, the biblical story is
the lan-
guage of a culture which gives common shape and
meaning to human
experience. How
does it do this? Lindbeck argues (and I agree) that
the
Bible structures culture (whatever culture) by means of its narra-
tives. The biblical narratives are a
"cosmic map." They are the compre-
hensive interpretive scheme which shows the
fundamental structures
of
reality. What is true, good, and real in the biblical
narratives are,
in
fact, what are to be taken as true, good, and real. The world we
experience as
readers of the Bible is the only real world. To be true
and
real, our own individual world must conform to the world we read
about in
the Bible. It is no accident that the Bible opens with the state-
ment, "In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth." The
Bible begins
with the one and only reality that preceded its world, that
is,
God. God alone exists eternally. All else is dependent on him and
owes its
origin to him. From that starting point the Bible begins to un-
fold its
cosmic map. From that point the Bible begins to define what is
real and
what is not real, what is true and what is false, what is good
and what
is evil. Like the lexicon and grammar of a language, the
Bible gives
shape and meaning to our world by presenting it to us as
a
totality.
An important aspect of Lindbeck's view
of culture and religion is
the
active role which the biblical narratives play in defining the nature
of
reality. "Human experience," says Lindbeck,
"is shaped, molded, and in a sense
constituted by cultural and linguistic
forms. There are numberless thoughts we cannot think, sentiments we
cannot have, and realities we cannot perceive
unless we learn to use the
appropriate symbol systems. . . . A comprehensive
scheme or story used to
structure all dimensions of existence is not
primarily a set of propositions
to be believed, but is rather the medium in which one moves, a set
of skills
that one employs in living one's life. . . . Thus while a religion's
truth claims
are often of the utmost importance to it (as in the case of
Christianity), it
4
"A religion is above all an external word, a verbum
externum, that molds and
shapes the
self and its world, rather than an expression or thematization
of a preexist-
ing self or of preconceptual
experience. The verbum internum
(traditionally equated by
Christians
with the action of the Holy Spirit) is also crucially important, but it would
be
understood in a
theological use of the model as a capacity for hearing and accepting the
true
religion, the true external word, rather than as a common experience diversely
artic-
ulated in different religions." (Lindbeck, 34)
John Sailhamer: ECLIPSE OF OLD TESTAMENT NARRATIVE 69
is, nevertheless, the conceptual vocabulary and the syntax or inner
logic
which determine the kinds of truth claims the religion can make."5
What Lindbeck is getting at here, I
think, is that the Bible, and par-
ticularly its narrative, creates and defines for us
the fundamental nature
of the
world in which we live. It is within that world that the Gospel
makes
sense. The Bible provides the "cosmic map" within which the
lost can
see that they are lost and also by which they can find their way
home.
Central to the biblical world is the need of redemption and the
possibility of
atonement.
I would now like to turn to three personal ways in which my own
"cosmic map" has been formed. In some respects, I am
representative
of many
in my generation. In other ways I am not. I give these ex-
amples from my own personal experience because
they provide an
illustration of how "cosmic maps" work, and ultimately, how the
Bible
structures our
reality.
2.2. How are
"Cosmic Maps" formed? Three examples from my own
personal experience
2.2.1.
Prophecy Charts.
When I was growing up, my father was a
pastor and
an evangelist. In our church we used to have what was
called a
"prophecy chart" hanging in the front of the sanctuary. That
prophecy
chart was one of my first "cosmic maps." It was a rather
conspicuous one
at that. It was a large piece of painted canvas--like a
banner. It
had seven circles drawn on it, each representing one of the
dispensations noted in the Scofield Bible. At either
end of the chart
there was
a half-circle which represented "eternity past" and "eternity
future."
In the middle of these two parts of eternity there stood all of
human
history. At the end of history stood the "Great Tribulation," the
"Millennium,"
the "Great White Throne Judgment," and the "
Fire." It
was not difficult in that church to know the "big picture." It
was also
very clear where we, as a church and as individuals, stood
within that
picture. In every prophecy chart I had ever seen, we were
only
about 6 inches from the "
child,
that prophecy chart had a powerful influence on my life. It was
like a
map at the shopping mall. I always knew exactly where I was
in
God's program. I learned to watch and wait for God's next act in
history. It
scared me, and at the same time, it gave me comfort. I
learned how
to live my life "in light of the second coming of Christ."
There is a book out today about such churches and about grow-
ing up with such expectations. It is called
"Living in the Shadow of the
5 Lindbeck, 34-35.
70 CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
Second Coming." It is an interesting book, but, to be honest, I do not like
the
title. For me, at least, and I know I speak for those in my church,
the
second coming did not cast a shadow upon our lives. The second
coming cast
a bright light of hope. It made every day of my young
life
meaningful. It gave it direction and purpose. There was anticipa-
tion. And there was also a constant warning:
Maybe today! Our youth
director
would say to us, "Would you like to be doing that when Christ
returns?"
or "Would you like to be in a movie theater when the Lord
returns?"
I have to be honest, when I look back. Without such warnings
my life
would not have been the same.
Now let me quickly say that I do not think we should start hang-
ing prophecy charts in our churches again. It
was, admittedly, a quite
unsophisticated way to create a "cosmic map." But it was effective. We
got the
point. Now that I have four children of my own, I often ask
myself,
What has replaced the prophecy chart for my children? How
are they
learning about God's plan for the ages, the whole counsel of
God, and
what the prophets say? Do they know down deep how their
lives fit
into God's plan? Do they know what God's plan is? A Chris-
tian's life is like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle.
We need to see how we fit
into the
whole picture. The contours and colors of our lives, like a
piece of a
jigsaw puzzle, are meaningless without a sense of God's big
picture. The
prophecy chart once did that for many of us. I do not think
it
could do it again. Something, however, must take its place.
2.2.2. The
I have been
given a "cosmic map"--the Hollywood Movie. Throughout
all of
my growing up years, I was not allowed to "go to movies." Mov-
ies were not allowed. There were only two
exceptions: movies with
biblical
themes (10 Commandments, David and Bathsheba) and "old
movies"
on TV. Leaving aside the matter of
movies with biblical themes
(which is a different subject altogether), let me say that
growing up
in
Through luck
or providence, my family moved to
time when
KHJ-TV purchased the entire film library of RKO Studios
from
Howard Hughes. That began what was then called the "Fabu-
lous 52" series. For 52 weeks each year,
KHJ-TV ran a classic Holly-
wood
movie every night of the week and several times over the
weekend. I
spent many a night, many a week, watching the same clas-
sic
was
happening to me? Hollywood was giving me a "cosmic map." It
was a
"cosmic map" made of old reruns, but it was a powerful state-
ment about the world, the good, the bad, the
true, the false--it care-
fully and
precisely defined for me the reality of the 30's and 40's as
Hollywood
had seen it. That "cosmic map" was, to be sure, a sort of
John Sailhamer: ECLIPSE OF OLD TESTAMENT NARRATIVE 71
hand-me-down. But it was a powerful map of reality. There was in those
movies, at
least in my life, stiff competition between the prophecy chart
and
Hollywood.
In the 20th century, the role of the movies and television, and
now
videos, has
been central in defining our "cosmic maps." Reality, for
many, if
not most 20th century Americans, has been defined by the
movies and
television. Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, Fred and Ethel Mertz,
June and
Ward Cleaver--these families sometimes have more reality
than our
next door neighbors. A few years ago my wife, Patty, was in
the
teacher's lounge of her school. She overheard some teachers talking
about
another woman whom she did not know. The teachers were talk-
ing about all the troubles this woman had
gone through. Her family
problems, her
health problems, her problems at work. Finally my wife
broke into
their conversation and asked, in a compassionate tone which
showed she
was concerned, "Who is this lady?" The teachers broke out
in
laughter. They laughed because the woman they were talking about
was one
of the characters in a soap opera they had been watching.
Their
conversation about her was just as if she were a real person.
The noted film critic Neal Gabler has
written an intriguing study
of the
Hollywood film industry. He has entitled the book, An Empire
of
their Own.6
Gabler's thesis is that the view of American life and
of
the
world which we know as the classic Hollywood film (e.g., "It's a
Wonderful
Life") was, and is (as we might expect), a view of a world
that
never really existed. The world of the classic Hollywood movie
was, in
reality, merely the world which the Hollywood movie produc-
ers created from their own imagination. Gabler's thesis is that those
Hollywood
producers created their world primarily, and principally,
for
themselves. It was a world which reflected the kind of world they
themselves
wanted to live in but could not. Most Hollywood producers
at that
time were immigrants to this country. Their movies presented
the
world of the "American Dream" which they had sought in coming
to this
country, but it was a world which they had not found when they
got
here. As immigrants in the early part of this century, they had been
excluded from
the "real America," whatever it might have been. Thus,
having no
place else to go, says Gabler, they created their own
"Ameri-
can
Dream." They created an "Empire of their own." It is that dream,
that
world, which we know so well from the Hollywood movies. Louis
Mayer, the
head of MGM and the most powerful man in Hollywood at
the
time, spent most of his waking hours watching the movies he had
produced. He
watched "old movies" just like I did. That was his world
just as
it was quickly becoming mine.
6 Neal
Gabler, An Empire
of their Own, New York: Crown Pub., 1988.
72 CRISWELL THEOLOGICAL REVIEW
It would be interesting and tempting to diverge from our topic and
discuss just
what the "world" created by the Hollywood movie was like.
It would
also be fun to point out how "biblical" such a world really was.
The major
producers in Hollywood during its heyday, for example, were
all
fundamentally influenced by the stories of the Bible. The greatest
Hollywood
producer of all time, D. W. Griffith, was quite biblically lit-
erate. In Griffith's scenes of Babylon in the
classic silent film "Intoler-
ance;" for example, Hollywood and the
prophecy chart, in fact, merge
into a
single image. That is true of many Hollywood films. The book has
not yet
been written (that I know of) on the relationship between Holly-
wood and
modern American evangelicalism.
I must move on, now,