Storytelling As Imaginational Art In Christian Education

A few years ago, I went to see the play “The Christians” at a college in Portland, OR. Portland is, philosophically, an extremely liberal town. And the college doing the play is a very secular, liberal college reflection of that. I found it interesting that they were doing a play called “The Christians” and wanted to see what they were going to do to the Christian message, since there is a tendency for non-Christians to present Christians as narrow-minded, bigoted or even idiotic! The play takes place in a megachurch that has just paid off its debts, and the pastor declares there is no physical hell. The plot is a series of theological debates, debating the existence of a physical hell, what happens to good people who die without knowing Christ, church politics and money, etc. I sat for 1½ hours listening to genuine biblical debates. It was fascinating.