Story in Bruce Olson (Class Readings)

April 20, 2022 

Bruce Olson does an amazing job in making do with the words that the Motilone Tribe has an does not have. A great example of this is when he is attempting to show the Motilones' what "faith" means. He uses the example of the hammocks that they put up every night and the fact that they have to have faith in the person who they tie their hammock to. This leads to the idea that the tribe members should tie their hammocks to Jesus! Later in the book, he uses the example of ants to describe the incarnation. There was a legend in the Motilone culture that an ant had become a Motilone, the first one. Bruce used this to explain that Jesus, who was God, became a human just like ant became a Motilone. This relates to the idea that oral cultures connect concepts to situations rather than abstractions. Bruce was bringing the abstract concept of incarnation into reality by using a situation and story from the culture that was already present. 

 

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