What a Story: How a Writer Views the Bible

By Dede Weldon Casad Ph.D.

Many inquiring minds want to view the Bible in a new way. What a Story looks at the Bible from the perspective of one interested in the explosion of literary genres, personalities, and types of stories.

From Adam and Eve to Jesus and Paul, there is fiction and nonfiction, history, biography, mystery, and love stories, along with parables, oracles, metaphors, allegories, and apocalyptic, intellectual mazes.

From the writer's point of view, the Bible is the greatest story ever written. From the reader's point of view, it is the greatest story ever read, and from the world's point of view it is the greatest story ever told. God, through his creative imagination, wrote a masterpiece.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9781512714814

Dede Weldon Casad Ph.D.

Dede Casad is the author of eight nonfiction works, four children’s books, and one novel. She holds two undergraduate degrees and a Ph.D. Dr. Casad is an entrepreneur and has served on several corporate boards. She makes her home in Dallas, Texas, and has three grown children and six grandsons.

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Copyright © 2015 Dede Weldon Casad, Ph.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-1482-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1483-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1481-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015916491

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/26/2015

Contents

Whose Story Is It, Anyway?

What’s It All About?

Book One

Creative Craft In Writing And Life

Book Two

The Story Made Flesh

Book Three

The Bible Tomorrow—The Sequel

Book Four

The Takeaways

Dedicated to those who listened to the story,

then asked me to make it into a book. Here it is!

I am a creature of a day. I am a spirit come from God, and

returning to God. I want to know one thing: the way to heaven.

God himself has condescended to teach me the way. He has written

it down in a book. Oh, give me that book! At any price give me

the book of God. Let me be a man of one book. - John Wesley

Writers are notoriously trailblazers. We write about individualistic subjects and go into uncharted fields of endeavor in order to enlighten, inspire, inform or entertain. I am no different. I like to write about ideas and issues which at first seem off-the-wall, but when researched and put to paper, often results in a new pathway of thinking. For instance, for some time I have been interested in looking at the Bible from a writer’s point of view. This idea came from a speech I made years ago showing how the craft of writing and the elements necessary for any good story are illustrated and demonstrated throughout the Bible. My speech was only an hour long, which is not long enough for a book, so I asked myself, could I elaborate on it? Could I make it appealing to a reader? Does the idea have merit? And then the underlying question - do I know enough about the Bible to do the subject justice?

I know the basics. I am aware of the names of the books within the Bible; I can recite several psalms; I can identify most of the characters; I can give you chapter and verse relating to many subjects, but that was not enough to satisfy my question. Do I know enough to critique the Holy Bible in such a way as to appeal to readers with Inquiring Minds?

The second question came fast on the heels of the first. Is the exercise of breaking down the Bible literarily helpful to an Inquiring Mind, who seeks a closer communion with God in a complex, sophisticated world? This book contains my answers to both questions.

In the process of looking at the Bible from the point of view of a writer, I suddenly realized that I was looking at the basic human hunger for spiritual answers, albeit with new lens. Or as Marcel Proust said, The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. The craft of writing and the art of living have a parallel association—with the common denominator being the skill of spiritual management. Both require structure, sensitivity and direction; both need creative craftsmanship; both need oversight guidance and both require hard, insightful work. This book is for the writer looking for Biblical confirmations and the spiritually minded, or those I choose to call Inquiring Minds, seeking a deeper and different understanding of both the Bible and His place in the grand scheme of God’s plan.

Rest assured, however, this book is not a theological treatise, nor a scholarly attempt at interpretation or confirmation of religious dogma. It is not designed to reveal new revelations about the Bible’s origin, its theological lessons, or even its authenticity as to when and who wrote the actual composition. And it is not my intention to divide and quarter any religious institution, denomination or church. This is strictly a writer looking at the Bible as a writer would look at any piece of literature, yet keenly aware that I am looking at the Bible, its structure, style and craft as a Story divinely inspired.

The same holds for the art of living. This book is not a self-help book per se, that is, it will not deal with how-to issues. However realizing the Bible is the definitive guide for living, it is important to emphasis and demonstrate the obvious parallel between reviewing the Bible and recognizing the power of the Bible, by offering to the Inquiring Mind, or the probing Christian, or the private searcher, a new and atypical way of looking at the Bible in the hope that this unique experience will cast a sharper light on the words, concepts and meanings found in this incredible book.

The Story as Truth

When one looks at the Bible, the greatest piece of literature of all time, one realizes it is the ultimate Story. Since I believe that Story is Truth, the best way I can excite you about the Bible is from a story writer’s approach to writing stories.

As a writer I am always involved in Story. Even though I rarely write fiction I still write a story, be it a biography, an essay, Texas history or a self-help book, they all are Story. Each relates a story, but via different and separate means.

There are hundreds of biographies written about famous people such as Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill. Autobiographies are not as plentiful because they must be written while the person is still living. Benjamin Franklin’s, Ulysses S. Grant’s and Katherine Graham’s autobiographies immediately come to mind. The reader knows, when either of these biographical forms is selected, he will read the story of someone’s life looking backward.

Novels are a different genre. Novels, by definition, are works of fiction that an author has artificially created from his or her private mental resources. Historical novels are those with elements of truth but are embellished by the author. Again, these novels are stories about people and events of the past, present or future.

Perhaps, harder to discover is the Story found in a modern poem or in a proverb or an essay, but search on, story is always there. The authors are telling you something, and that something is Truth, as they see it. Many times an author portrays Truth as a visual picture, or through a dramatic narrative or an explosive scene, but the essence of Truth is there imbedded in the work itself.

When reading a book, no matter if it is dull as ditchwater or academic to the point of boredom, a Story is always there. If Story is there Truth is there. Think about it, numerical figures or numbers are words in a different form, yet even they present a Story.

Story is Truth. Said another way, Truth comes from Story. Truth also comes from facts. One can readily see truth in a biography, written about a single person as accurately as possible by a reputable biographer. Some may question the author’s interpretation of the facts about the person, but the facts remain factual and can be interpreted or reinterpreted many times by many different writers over time.

But where is Story in a non-fiction book or a self-help book, you ask? The answer is in every word. If story is truth, then within the text of an essay or a self-help book, is found in the purpose or the reason for that particular creative work. The essence, the moral, the lesson or the theme of a narrative, regardless of genre, is story and that story comprises Truth. What is learned, what inspires and what remains when the final word is read on the last page and the book is closed - is Truth.

Story is memory. From prose to poetry, from pulp to classic literature what is read and absorbed is imbedded in one’s memory bank. We often remember the story line, or recall some of the scenes or the characters’ names, but most of all we remember the truth, the cardinal truth that emerges out of story that verifies that story is truth!

Even evil or poorly written stories disclose a truth in their own style whether we believe it or not. That truth could well be considered a false truth to some minds. All truths are not accepted or said differently, not everyone accepts truth equally. Some truths can even be rejected, overlooked or ignored as we have often witnessed upon the political scene in modern times.

But none of this takes away from the fact that story is truth, meaning that Truth comes from Story as story is the vehicle for exposing Truth. Once you accept this premise, the Bible becomes a new experience and your appreciation of the Bible, as a whole or as individual stories and events, will be different.

Whose Story Is It, Anyway?

When you read God’s Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, It is talking to me, and about me. - Soren Kierkegaard

THE BIBLE IS GOD’S STORY. First and foremost, the Bible is the story about God, who He is, what He does, and what He will do. It’s about His creativity, His ideas, and His desire to have His people know him. The Bible, as His story from start to finish, describes His role in the world, His activity and His influence. Throughout the Bible, God continually and purposefully reveals Himself. He is in every premise, theme, plot, subplot, myth, allegory and parable. He is in every short story, poem or proverb. In every sense of the word, the Bible is God’s autobiography, scene by scene, act by act, event by event, and through His personal words and His specific voice. Even though the Bible has been penned by many appointed stenographers, it is nonetheless God’s story.

God is the main character. He is the protagonist and the antagonist. He plays the leading role and stars in every event. He is both the author and the editor, thus having complete control of the contents and direction of the Word. He plays Abraham, the patriarch of the Hebrew people; He plays Samson, the hero who thwarts the Philistines with his superhuman strength; He plays Absalom, the son of David, who attempted to overthrow the throne from his father; He plays Ruth, who stays with her mother-in-law Naomi; He plays Rehoboam and Jeroboam at the same time as they divide Israel into two parts; He plays Job, the victim of oppression. God is in every person mentioned in the Bible, as