🌱Seed 🙂Agree 🟡Consideration 🔥Doctrine-Poetry-Story
The Big Idea
Doctrines are clean, clear and simple expressions of faith drawn from Scripture. They are a good means to have a clear picture about what one believes and why. However, they also can become overly reductionistic if treated as an end in themselves. Doctrine is meant to help clarify not replace the full council of Scripture. With this in mind, Biblical Poetry has a wonderful balancing force. While doctrine is clean and simple and clear. Poetry is expansive, and imaginative.
Bible genres are often used as a way to start thinking about the huge variety of ways of speaking in scripture.
Have the epic story of the exodus and Jesus crucifixion The poetic songs of the Psalms The clear confession of doctrine in Paul’s epistles
Example of this kind of division of literary styles in Scripture Literary Styles in the Bible
If you just go by volume there is far more episodic story and poetry then there are ever doctrinal statements throughout the pages of Scripture
Doctrine is important to be clear and concise
but poetry and story are the way that doctrine actually soaks into your being and imagination
story and poetry are both written in scripture to be remembered patterns and repetition layout of material all meant to help memory
memory is more than rote memory Memory, the Things We Keep with Us
There seems to be
The same truth can be expressed in doctrine or poetry. One is simple the other is imaginative.
Example of God speaking.
Story: Moses and the burning bush
Doctrine: God Speaks through His written word
Poetry: Find a verse that describes the voice of God through scripture.
Wisdom literature (Especially Job and Ecclesiastes) are able to foster intellectual humility that we do not know exactly how everything works
Therefore we need them all doctrine to be clear, poetry to imagine and experience, and wisdom to slow down and wonder.
Proclaiming the Gospel in its fullness should look like
Telling the eternal stories
Singing/praying/imagining the eternal poems
Teaching the eternal truths summarized in doctrines