In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

6 Spiritual Narratives of Place Uncovering stories of our lives that richly develop our spirituality so far has focused on those stories that live within our memories of the past and our hopes for the future. These stories are often populated by those relationships, values, and hopes that give meaning to our lives. Re-storying or re-authoring asks us to consider the effects of these stories on the people in our lives as well as on our hopes and dreams. The inhabitants of these stories are largely the significant people in our lives who deepen our spirituality and connect us more closely to God. Place unwittingly may be left out of this deepening of our spiritual stories. It is easy to view location or place as merely the site where the stories are told. Stories occur somewhere. True, it is relating to people that our life is truly infused with meaning. Therefore, we may leave the place where the meaning of relationships occurred behind us. Place, however, has a rich history in lives of believers. The Hebrews’ spiritual identity developed from a wandering people worshipping a traveling God to a people with a transportable ark as place to worship God. Then, the temple at Jerusalem was built where the ark rested. The Hebrews found a place of spiritual focus—Jerusalem—to enrich their worship of God. Similar experiences may occur in our own lives. We remember the church where we made a profession of faith. The mountain trail where we experienced God’s presence is a place we may visit whenever possible. The church where a couple was married may remind them of the first love they experienced. As we revisit the places where deep spiritual experiences occurred, we might experience the story related to that place in a new way. Our spiritual story is deepened. This chapter explores the role of place in spiritual narratives as informed by narrative practice, liberation theology, and the rich collaboration between them. After discussing these discrete features, I will explicate a narrative 81 pedagogy through the experience of students and professor in a cultural immersion class of Christian Theological Seminary through Appalachian Ministries Educational Resource Center (AMERC) that took place in the Appalachian region of eastern Kentucky. Finally, I will draw implications for pastors and seminary professors from the research findings of the class, lifting “place” as an important component of contextual ministry with a unique emphasis on social justice for marginalized populations. Place in Narrative Practice As one considers place, a review of the narrative practice literature reveals little that is explicitly connected with place. Australian native Jane Lester (2001) and the New Zealand Just Therapy Team (Raheimet al. 2004) offer reflections on ways in which land is linked to identity through narrative therapy. The richest description of place in narrative therapy comes from an article by Mark Trudinger (2006) in which he reviews its role and offers some suggestions for further development through reflection on his leading a workshop with young men suffering the effects of violence. The practice of narrative therapy, however, has several implicit references to place. Michael White’s questions for reflecting teams focus on expressions, image, resonance, and transport (2007). The last category of transport asks, “Where does it ‘transport’ you to?” This question implies that different experiences inhabit different places—those spheres to which we may find ourselves “transported” so that literally we are in a different “space.” Further, White’s last contribution to narrative therapy was the idea of “maps” of narrative practice as a metaphor of how to find one’s way through the landscapes of action and identity (2007). However, the relationship of place itself to identity in narrative therapy has not been richly explored (Trudinger 2006). In Trudinger’s deepening of anthropologist Barbara Myerhoff’s writing about an elderly Jewish community in Santa Monica, he argues that people do not merely inhabit space, but “inscribe themselves on it” (Trudinger 2006, 12). These inscriptions are ways in which people interpret and reflect on themselves based on the environment in which they live. This engagement with space can be seen as “the physical” (walls), “spatial and cultural” (neighborhoods), and more mobile and less place-bound aspects of culture (media) (12). This introduces the notion of space as a dimension of human experience. How do we inhabit our physical space? To what degree do we experience the physicality of life? Where do connections with our communities and neighborhoods enrich or deplete our identities? These...

Share