Those of us who dwell in the land of vocational exploration and discernment have often been reminded of the power of narratives in supporting this work. The narratives that we employ are often real-life stories: now-famous folks whose lives began in unpromising ways, people whose winding paths eventually pointed them in a particular direction, or elders and mentors who told us of their own journeys. The field of ethics, too, has often relied on these narratives to provide examples of lives of character and virtue. But I have always believed that fictional narratives can be just as useful and important as those that come from real-life features and (auto)biographies. In fact, fiction has a couple of advantages over non-fiction in this regard.
For one thing, fiction writers necessarily focus on particular character traits, since they only have a limited amount of time and space to help their readers understand that kinds of people who populate their novels, short stories, and plays. Moreover, the fiction writer has unlimited access to the character’s inner life: everything from passing thoughts to future plans to imaginative leaps can be conveyed in a work of fiction. This is especially useful for those elements of a person’s life that often remain hidden—and are therefore often unavailable to the nonfiction writer (as well as those elements that are burnished in a positive direction, either by a biographer or by oneself in a memoir). In my own work in theology and ethics, I often made use of fiction to explicate a particular religious belief or practice; these examples were often clearer and more forceful than anything I might have chosen from real life. These examples helped me explicate the Apostles’ Creed and reflect on the mysteries of suffering, death, and new life.
In the world of blogs that I follow regularly, one of my current favorite authors is Steven Mintz, professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. He blogs for the website Inside Higher Ed—an important source of news and comment for our sector (and anyone can sign up for a free account). Mintz’s series is called Higher Ed Gamma, and his posts cover a wide range of topics; I am always impressed by the range of insightful commentary, on topics related not only to history but also to philosophy, religion, drama, and the field of education more generally. Two of his most recent posts (both of which appeared within the last few weeks) focus on the value of fictional narratives, and my main goal here is to encourage readers of Vocation Matters to have a look at them.
In The Essential Role of Creative Fictions in Human Life (January 25), Mintz considers a range of philosophers and theologians whose work, he says, offer “challenges to mechanistic and materialist views of nature.” That may sound a bit heady—and to be fair, some of the people that Mintz writes about can be a little impenetrable (the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza, for example, or contemporary theologian David Bentley Hart, whose writing is tough enough sledding for doctoral candidates in that field, let alone non-specialists). But Mintz is a very fine “public historian,” insofar as his writing explicates the work of complex thinkers in ways that are accessible to those with a solid general education. In this piece, he bullet-points the key features of the critique of mechanistic views of the world: they oversimplify reality, ignore its interconnectedness and holism, and leave little space for awe and wonder. “The human mind,” he notes, “with its capacity for creativity, morality, and introspection, humanizes the universe by creating narratives, myths, and values that help us navigate existence.” I think that “navigating existence” might be a good synonym for “vocational discernment”!
Mintz is also very good at emphasizing the practical implications of his musings, particularly for higher education. A fine recent example is Can Classical Dramas Heal Campus Divides? (January 24), which bears the subtitle “Ask students to step into the past to better understand the present.” Here he profiles a program at CIC member institution Kenyon College, where ancient Greek plays are being used to foster dialogue around modern conflicts, including the current wars in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe. The focus here is particularly on Euripides’s tragedy The Trojan Women and the range of narratives that populate The Iliad. These works, he notes, “with their timeless themes of conflict, hubris and loss, rich in moral and emotional complexity, can serve as a catalyst for addressing contemporary issues”—including those that divide our campuses. Helping students through this particularly thorny thicket is, I think, part of our work in supporting them as they discern their many callings in life.
I commend these two posts, and all of Steven Mintz’s work, to those who are considering how fictional narratives might further enrich the exploration and discernment of vocation among our undergraduate students. How fortunate that our work gives us the opportunity to engage with some of the greatest writers of the past and present, as we help our students step into their future lives.
David S. Cunningham is the executive director of NetVUE. For most posts by David, click here.
