Re: Metavista, narrative, and the historical-critical project

I’ve never read anything by Hans Frei, but a Frei scholar gave a brief overview once on, of all places, the Jesus Creed blog. It seems that, for Frei, historical study is relevant within the Biblical narrative itself: what was the temporal sequence of events recounted in the story, how do the various "story arcs" unfold over time, etc. But there is no reason to evaluate whether the history inside the story corresponds to world history outside the story. E.g., it’s not crucial whether the Exodus occurred in secular history when and how the Bible says it did. Readers of Moby Dick can agree on a time sequence unfolding inside the novel and can recognize that the events unfold in a timeline which parallels that of the "real world." However, in understanding the novel the world’s timeline is secondary to and ultimately irrelevant to the story’s timeline. What’s happening in mid-19th century history "on the outside" is irrelevant to Ahab and Ishmael as, inside the book, they pursue the great white whale. From the characters’ perspective it’s the inside of the text that’s real. Similarly, in living inside the Biblical story it’s not important whether the Biblical Exodus corresponds accurately to secular world history, or even whether the Exodus actually occcurred. It occurred inside the story, and for characters inside the story that’s the important thing.

Frei, as he’s been presented to me, would have Christians occupy the reality of the Bible as if they were characters in a novel. From a perspective inside the reality of the text, it’s the text’s historical timeline that’s the real one. There’s no need to read the text as having allegorical relevance to the "real world," because if you’re living inside the text it’s the textual reality that’s real. How does the Christian move from being a person in historical time to being a character in the unfolding saga of Scripture? For Frei the transition is mediated by participating in Christ’s resurrection. Somehow this event opened up a bridge or portal between the secular world and the Biblical world — as if, through Ishmael’s survival of the wreck of the Pequod, it became possible for readers to enter and to live inside the textual reality of Moby Dick as it continues to unfold. From inside the story, secular historical timelines recede in importance because in effect the fictional and nonfictional realities change places. Christians must come to recognize what happened to them — that they’ve stepped through a portal transporting them from the world into the ongoing Biblical narrative itself.

As I said, I learned about Frei in a post on Jesus Creed, which I guess was nearly two years ago according to secular history. Scot McKnight began the post tentatively commending Frei’s exegesis as a possible way forward in reconciling Biblical and secular events. As Frei’s position became clearer in the discussion, the post suddenly and without explanation got deleted. Who knows though: maybe if you’re a Christian and you look through the Jesus Creed archives the post is still there.