META NARRATIVE PLAY FREE

This passage speaks of a divine will, a purpose, a timetable, a fulfillment, and a unity. Paul writes, “ made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment-to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ” (Ephesians 1:9–10). The Bible clearly teaches the existence of metanarrative. Relativism, ironically, becomes the one assured absolute. The “truth” that there is no absolute truth is the metanarrative that gives meaning to the postmodern thinker. The problem with postmodernism is that it quickly becomes another metanarrative. Postmoderns view a single narrative giving meaning to all lives as an impossibility. An individual narrative speaks of what is “true for me” and “gives meaning to my life.” Postmodern thinking rejects metanarratives because it rejects universal truth. A metanarrative speaks of absolute, universal truth. Instead, they focus on small, individual narratives that give meaning to their own lives. Indeed, postmoderns generally do not accept any overarching story that gives meaning to all of life. In this book, the author characterizes the postmodern condition as that of increasing skepticism of all metanarratives. The term metanarrative was brought into prominence by Jean-François Lyotard in his 1979 book The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.

A metanarrative has the power to explain and purports to be true for all of life. Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity all offer metanarratives to explain various events in history and the contemporary world. Religious worldviews are also metanarratives.

META NARRATIVE PLAY FREE

Marxism, Freudianism, Free Market Capitalism, and Enlightenment Emancipation would be examples of metanarratives in that every event in life and history is seen through one of these lenses. The concept of a metanarrative is similar to a worldview-something that gives meaning to life and the individual events that take place in life. The plumber isn’t fitting pipes to nowhere he is involved in a larger scheme. The blueprint is the “big picture,” the metanarrative that gives meaning to each contractor’s work. In building a house, there are many workers doing many individual jobs-plumbing, sheet rock, electrical work, roofing, etc.-but all of those contractors are working toward the same thing-completing a house. A metanarrative is the “big picture” or all-encompassing theme that unites all smaller themes and individual stories. A metanarrative (also called grand narrative) is an overarching story or storyline that gives context, meaning, and purpose to all of life.

Meta narrative play