Earthbound & The Greatest Story Ever Told (Resolving Narrative Error in the Bible)

Abstract

How would the narrative told over the 66 canonical books of the Christian Bible (73 in the case of Catholicism) be received if it were presented to us now, for the first time, as a piece of contemporary fiction? This work suggests that such a novel or screenplay would be heavily critiqued for the presence of plot-holes, or narrative errors. Then, having categorised these narrative errors, it examines the extent to which the superimposition of a new, parallel narrative can contextualise or reframe said errors to provide, where possible, resolutions. The superimposed narrative, Earthbound, explores whether or not it can provide a resolving context by explaining the most pertinent errors – those instances where the supposedly benevolent God character either directly mandates or just tacitly approves of various, unnecessary pain and suffering, or simply behaves in ways which undermine claims of his omniscience and omnipotence – in the same way as the suffering visited upon the eponymous character in The Book of Job is explained: as being the consequences of a wager made between God and Satan. Retelling core events of the biblical narrative through this lens - The Fall, The Flood, The Crucifixion, Revelation – the enclosed novel, Earthbound, endeavours to improve the overall cohesion of the narrative, while preserving as much of the original detail as possible. The analysis that follows, The Greatest Story Ever Told? will examine the successes and failures of that project