How stories invite empathy
Here’s an interesting essay, full of links to other resources, that is exploring how we might be “wired for empathy” and why stories cultivate emotions.
Creating
Unleashing the power of elders’ stories
Deborah Jorgens recently successfully defended her MA capstone project at Luther Seminary. Her paper is a lovely, concise, and eloquent description of the power involved in creating room for elders in a community to share their stories with the wider community. She was particularly focused on a Christian ministry setting that was predominately white and …
Indigenous Storytelling
A lovely piece from the Duke Faith&Leadership blog about the epistemological convictions embodied in indigenous storytelling.
Read and watch this NOW.
This is an essay about the best piece of storytelling I’ve encountered in a long time — Hannah Gadsby’s stand-up comedy special on Netflix. Yes, she’s funny, but she’s also an incredibly powerful truth teller. This NPR essay points to some of the reasons why — but watch the special first!
Storying resources from a specific congregation
Here’s a lovely post about the First Baptist Church of McMinnville, Oregon, and its use of storytelling to create community, remember history, and engage people beyond the sanctuary. The post includes a variety of very useful resources for doing this kind of storytelling particularly in the context of worship.
Digital stories to reform criminal justice
“I’ll tell my story” is a project of the Sarah Webster Fabio Center for Social Justice. Formerly incarcerated persons tell their stories through the creation of digital stories using the CDS methodology.
Photography as spiritual practice
Sr. Liz Thoman, long time advocate of media education, spoke with me often about her joy in doing photography as a spiritual practice. It is lovely to see that Eileen Crowley has extended this idea and developed a website to help people engage photography through this lens.
Storytelling as ministry
Dr. Eileen Crowley, professor at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, has created a lovely website on “storytelling as ministry” in which she shares pragmatic resources and lovely examples.
How to win an election — through story
Here’s yet another Redglass Pictures short film, this one focused on how stories fund political campaigns. It’s absolutely fascinating to hear this political strategist talk about the story he told that helped get George Bush elected. This story is particularly fascinating given what happened in our most recent election.
Ken Burns on story
Here is another Redglass Pictures film, this one is Ken Burns talking about story — and in it, he talks about how stories tell truths, and yet also manipulate.