Upcoming Webinar
Developing Theology Through Narrative
Join our next webinar with Cleber Paula Santos!
November 11, 2026 — 8:00 PM (Manila) | 7:00 AM (EST)
Discover how stories shape our understanding of God and the practice of theology.
Check out Cleber’s related article: A Theology of Orality for the Global Church: Recovering God’s Narrative Revelation.
Why Narratives?
Biblical Theology begins with The Story. God has revealed Himself through narratives, teaching His people through the lives, choices, and experiences of real people, both as positive and negative examples. Because human experience is inherently narrative, stories powerfully make sense of life and pass on truth, both our lived truths and God’s revealed truth.
Narrative Approach
A holistic and context-sensitive way of doing theology and discipling nations through story. It bridges cultural divides, allowing Eastern and Western ways of knowing to meet, while moving beyond predominantly Western approaches to communicating and understanding truth.
Related books/reference:
- The Return of Oral Hermeneutics: As Good Today as It Was for the Hebrew Bible and First-Century Christianity by Tom Steffen & William Bjoraker.
- Character Theology: Engaging God through His Cast of Characters by Tom Steffen & Ray Neu.
- Exegeting Orality: Interpreting the Inspired Words of Scripture in Light of Their Oral Traditional Origins by Nick Acker.
- Why Sermons Weren’t in the New Testament Churches (And What They Did Instead): https://youtu.be/ZeAtxMKX6iM.
New Releases
OralityTalks Journal Vol 3, No. 2 (2026) is now out. Download it here: https://journal.oralitytalks.net.
The Chapter Code: Unlock the Simple System to Memorize 15 Bible Outlines bu Larry Dinkins & Josh Summers: https://thechaptercode.com.
Orality Quiz: Just for fun, take our orality trivia quiz and share your results.
The Growing Awareness of Orality as Holistic Communication
Pathways for Tomorrow (Lilly Endowment Project) – In collaboration with Wesleyan biblical seminaries and the Institute for Orality Strategies (IOS), the project integrates Orality (Holistic Communication) into theological education. IOS advances Orality by bringing together historical oral teaching practices and contemporary global mission insights to enrich pastoral formation and equip the next generation of pastors and leaders. As WBS President, Andy Miller III emphasizes, this provides an academically rigorous alternative that embraces diverse learning styles.
https://lillyendowment.org/pathways-for-tomorrow-initiative/
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