One of my favorite podcasts is Dancing with Elephants produced by Greg, Tonya, Nick, and Caleb from Chicago. In a recent listener feedback show, Greg was commenting on a story where a Conference of the Church of England was using Dr. Who episodes to study particular Christian themes.
Greg called this usage of Dr. Who a parable but wasn’t sure of the terminology. The following is part of an email that I sent him.
Hi Greg and Tonya,
Regarding using Dr. Who used in a Church settings, here’s a quote from a previous MythShow’s transcript:
Fables Defined:
A fable is a short story with a very definite moral or principle that is being taught. Like fairy tales, extraordinary characters are used in the story. One example is the tortoise who raced the hare. Unlike fairy tales, a fable is told in a very conversational manner where both the story teller and audience knows that the tale is fictitious. The main purpose of the fable is not to entertain but to educate the listener using the fable as an example.
Parables Defined:
The close cousin to the fable is the parable. A parable is also used as a teaching tool for morals and principles. The difference between fables and parables is that a parable does not contain any of the fantastical elements found in the fairy tales or fables. The parable uses very real settings and real people to convey the message.
So here’s the breakdown:
Dr. Who on TV could be loosely defined as a “Fairy Tale” as it is pure entertainment. But using it in a Church lecture, both the lecturer and audience know Dr. Who is not real (Tonya, Sorry if this last statement comes as a shock
). Because of this common understanding between the lecturer and audience, and the “fantastical” elements of Dr. Who, the correct term would be a “Fable”. The same could be said for me when I used “Harry Potter” and “Chronicle of Narnia” examples in my Sunday School Lessons.
An example of a Parable in a church lesson would be like using a movie or TV show that could of really happened, like the popular crime/police/forensic dramas. Technically they could happen but the audience and TV Producer know that they are fiction.
Hope this helps to clarify the issue.
Thanks, Greg
I love seeing the use of stories and how they help!
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