Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

not wrong for us to take something to somebody who doesn't know the Lord and show
them the sunrise and say, "Isn't this beautiful?" (Bailey 1).
Here we have two worlds, Christian and non-Christian, being defined by the shared experience of the awe
of nature (I would point out that the mere recognition that there could be two truths side by side like this is
postmodern.) Miller recognizes that forcing scripture into a moment like that would be untruthful and an
abuse of scripture (Bailey 1). At this, Bailey asks “Where does Jesus fit into better storytelling?” Just as a
Christian reader may be thinking that Miller is getting too “out there” in what is marketed as a Christian
book, Miller answers:
Well, I think in the grand epic Jesus is the hero of our stories. And our stories, as they
were, are subplots in a grand epic and our job is not to be the hero of any story. Our job is
to be a saint in a story that he is telling. And that's a book that I'll write in the future. But
this book was really much more of a practical idea, an introductory idea, if you will (Bailey
1).
This statement may leave readers wondering if Miller thinks that non-Christians can live a meaningful story
without acknowledging Jesus as their hero. Putting these two statements (one quite postmodern and one
slightly more modern) we can see the bridge being built once more.
Donald Miller: Not a Doctrine
To frame Miller’s ideas in the context of Rob Bell’s reasoning, Jesus died for everyone (including
non-Christians) and it is the choice of the individual to choose to live in that story or not. So, following
similar logic, is Miller saying that all people are living in a story in which Jesus is the hero and non-
Christians just don’t know it (or accept it?) This is where the Christian narrative idea becomes fuzzy, and
Miller side steps the issue. Miller says of this matter, “I think that because I'm a Christian they're looking
for doctrinal statements, and I don't give doctrinal statements” (Bailey 1). This seems to be a marker of
Emergents or those who fall under the Emergent blanked of endorsement; very rarely (if at all) will an
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