Metanarrative – Mighty Important

The metanarrative we live in (notice I didn't say "believe in"- for instance we may live in the overarching story of animism, secular-humanism, Buddhism, Judaism, etc) -- this lived-in metanarrative gives us our sense/perception of taxonomy (classification of everything), identity, community, cosmology, authority, morality, destiny, functionality, epistemology, temporality (time), locality, and unity (how everything is connected). Needless to say, it is fairly influential.

A Stab at Defining Metanarrative

A definition of metanarrative (in progress): A metanarrative is an all-encompassing, communal, on-going story of reality in which a society lives, and which provides the story-based, tacit, present tense grid whereby individuals of that society interpret and interact with all aspects of life.

Community and Metanarrative

A lad growing up in an animistic culture in the remote jungles of Brazil would have different family experiences, learn a different language, hear different stories, laugh at different jokes, go through different initiation rites, listen to different music, view ancestors differently, and treat elders differently than a Caucasian boy growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia or Edmonton. Each boy would have a distinct and different tacit view of what constitutes community -- community rites, community metaphors, community relationships, community signs, community symbols, community obligations, and community rights. Each view comes via a particular (lived-in) metanarrative – the former characterized largely by the larger story connected with animism, the latter quite possibly characterized by the larger story of postmodern, pluralistic, secular-humanism. Here the postmodernists have it right – each community does indeed come up with its own (non-universal) metanarrative. Here the postmodernists also have it wrong – each community’s metanarrative is not equally valid. 

Tacit Assumptions – Tacit Interpretation

A person living in some rival story (that is, rival to God's view of reality) develops from the stories and experiences of life a view of one’s self as a human being. Some of these perceptions about oneself are discernable by the individual; things like gender, race, shape, and certain personality characteristics. But the rival metanarrative also gives rise to many tacit assumptions about self – unstated and implicit suppositions dealing with issues such as an innate sense of inferiority or superiority, helplessness or resourcefulness, dependence or independence, and temporal or eternal. The rival metanarrative forms these identity assumptions, which intertwine with each other and with all the other assumptions concerning every other aspect of life; and subsequently it is through this comprehensive and holistic grid of assumptions that the world (including all texts) is interacted with and interpreted.

Taxonomy and the Trinity

I have been thinking about taxonomy. Maybe it's the variety of tomatoes growing in the greenhouse. Or the different kinds of mice, voles, moles, shrews we are discovering around our "farm." At any rate, taxonomy is on the mind. In that light...before Linnaeus, Aristotle, Adam (all of whom got involved in taxonomy), and before creation – there was only the Trinity. The taxonomy of the Trinity is inherent in the three distinct persons in the one God of the Christian faith: “the Father of Source, who is the origin of all things; the Son or Word, who comes forth from God and takes on human flesh; and the Spirit, the ‘Giver of Life,” who dwells in human hearts and animates the believing community.”[1] Taxonomy is indeed inherent in the Trinity and in His creation. It has been a part of human history since the beginning. Its roots are thoroughly theological rather than specifically scientific. Humans gain their perception of how the items and ideas of life are categorized and classified by living in and listening to the metanarrative that provides the overarching storyline for reality. Some classification is learned in an academic setting (like what is learned in high school biology class), but most human taxonomizing is tacit and learned at an early age.

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[1] David S. Cunningham, "The Trinity," in The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology, ed. Kevin J. Vanhoozer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 186. Note also Cunningham’s caution on using the word “person” in regards to the three persona of the Trinity. He believes “person” as it is used today evokes too much the concept of “individuality, autonomy, and even isolation from external relations” (189).

A Slogan – for Metanarrative, Meaning, and Mankind

This is going to be a short post -- like really, really short. I was thinking of a slogan -- a slogan that would act as a kind of branding for any organization (or individual) wanting to "change the world." Here goes, "Change the metanarrative and you change the meaning. Change the meaning and you change mankind." Ok, ok -- so maybe I won't be getting calls from United Nations, Peace Corps or Obama. But, nonetheless, I believe the meaning of the slogan has merit.

The Relationship (and Importance Thereof) Between Metanarrative & Worldview

There is a close relationship between metanarrative and worldview: Metanarrative deals with form, process, a story-grounding, and is diachronic; worldview deals with function, product, a story-grid, and is synchronic. Metanarrative is the story one lives in; worldview is the grid through which one interprets.  

The relationship between the two can be diagrammed like this (note: the Metanarrative is formed by the many, many small stories/experiences of life)

                                                                                                Worldview

                                                                        (Product, Function, Synchronic, Story-Grid)

ßsssssssssssssssssssssssssssMetanarrativessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssxsssssssssssssssssssssssssssà

     (Process, Form, Diachronic, Story-Grounding)

If the above is true, the implications are significant: Worldview change does not occur without metanarrative change, and the order is critical. Worldview change calls first for conviction of need and understanding of implications of a “better” metanarrative. Likewise, the interpretation of life (and texts) is impacted most powerfully by the interpreter’s awareness of metanarratival concerns and personal change at that level.