Here is a brief article I wrote for the Colson Center…recasting an insight from C.S. Lewis. Both science and theology have poetic elements.
The Poetry of Science and Theology
by Christopher Perrin, PhD | Aug 26, 2010 | Articles | 3 comments
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You have written that, “There is great pleasure in hearing fairy tales. There is an even greater pleasure in coming to know the tale is true.” Is there an age at which there exists a danger in exposing students to false fairy tales alongside the true tales of God’s word? An age at which the distinction between the two is not easily discerned?
Andrew,
I think we do need to exercise discretion when we tell our children and students tales of any type… A false fairy tale is not much different in this respect to a story book we might read to younger students or a video we might show them. For older students, novels and movies carry a similar concern. At bottom, all fiction is “made up” and so in that sense false. But of course a made-up story can teach something profoundly true. I think, therefore, we must teach to students early the role that stories and tales play…they are false stories that can give us great truths. Ultimately, I think that children can handle fairy tales as soon as they can follow a story–as long as the story-teller is a trustworthy guide.
Good to hear from you,
Chris
Gentlemen–
Sorry to be so late in joining the conversation. Just came across this post whilst wandering around the web in the wee hours, considering the nature of this and that.
If I may, I’d offer a question in riposte to Andrew: What is a false fairy tale? Or what makes a fairy tale false? I’m uncomfortable with our use of the word false in relation to stories we know not to be factual, nor intended to be understood as factual. Once we get to where we’re saying a false story is also “profoundly true”, I think we’re in need of better vocabulary.
I think, Andrew, that you may be asking about whether there is a need to refrain from telling/reading stories (of the sort we might call fairy tales) to children too young to have the ability to adequately discern the “fairy tale” character of the story. Telling stories of horrible dragons to children that actually, as a result of hearing the story, come to believe there are horrible dragons, might not be a good thing–is that the gist of your thought?
Part of the art of the fairy tale is in the telling of it in such a way that the child recognizes, on some plane of thought, that the story happens in a make-believe world, a world in which we may suspend our disbelief in horrible dragons, etc. Done well, the fairy tale is tailored to the audience. Thus, we end up with Mother Goose for the pre-school set, on up to Harry Potter for the early adolescents, and finally to fantasy fiction for those of us old enough to know better. [Note that I’m passing no judgment whatsoever on the value of the stories of the Brothers Grimm or the tales of Hogwarts, or any others.]
Fairy tales are one of the ways we tell stories, at all ages. For each age, some topics and some presentations are inappropriate, but the notion of the fairy tale itself remains a useful one.