During the past week, I have been having a conversation with a friend about a particular series of novels. The main character in the books is somebody who lives according to a very strong moral sense, and a deep commitment to right, good and love. Fans of the writer often speak of the impact of this writing on their own sense of self, and of the model the character provides.
In talking about this - and other - books that have mattered to us, I have become even more convinced, or perhaps it is that I have managed more clearly than usual to articulate, the recognition that for many of us, there are guiding texts; they may be books, or films, music or TV programmes (Patrick Stewart, when he took the role of Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the Star Ship Enterprise, in the series Star Trek, commented that he had been taken aback by the realisation that there were people who took his character as a life-model - and the responsibility that placed on him.)But whatever they are, they form a narrative that speaks to us of character, and what is admirable, of aims and how we might achieve them, of what it means to be a person, and how to do it.
The question is not will we have a base narrative - the question is do we know what it is, and have we chosen it with awareness.
Perhaps the year when we reflect on the translation of the Scriptures that we know as the Authorized Version, it is a good time to think further together about how, if at all, Scripture can be a base narrative for us?