Who are we? Where do we come from? Why are we here? What happens when we die? Why does it all matter?
These questions tend to be individual ones, but that’s not always been the case. For tribes and other gathering of people groups, those questions would be asked on a communal level. The answers would come about through the sharing of stories – sometimes the stories would be those told to children as they prepared to sleep. Sometimes the stories would be shared round a circle as a people got together to celebrate or be united for a common cause.
One generation would pass it down to the other. Then at some point when the technology developed, the stories were written down and kept for posterity even as some maintained the oral tradition.
However much we may think in some cultures the communal spirit is dying and being replaced by a far more aggressively individualistic consumer model, there is still the group ethos that prevails. Gaining a sense of identity in a communal way may appear more challenging, but whether it’s through social media or other means, it’s still worth celebrating that as it’s expressed. It’s still worth pursuing that from generation to generation and with the generations.
The thing about faith for me is that it is designed to give the platform for communities to work these things out together. We get to do this with each other and in the light of long histories of oral tradition and written records of folks sharing out loud answers that help to shape us.
If we have the ears to hear.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 