Category talk:Christian mythology

message: This page is for discussion the "Christian mythology" category, its application, its neutrality or lack thereof, and whether or not its continued use is appropriate for Wikipedia.  Or, of course, anything that the community finds relevant and appropriate.  JHCC (talk) 16:34, 14 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Continued discussion 

message: :However tempting it may be to remove the loaded language in this last paragraph, suffice it to say that:
:# Just because Narrative theology seeks to express theology through narrative rather than through a theological system, this does not mean that describing stories told within and about Christianity as "Christian narratives" necessarily affirms that such stories are true.
:# Similarly, those who describe stories told within and about Christianity as "Christian narratives" do necessarily embrace "Narrative theology", especially considering that "Narrative theology" as such is a late-20th century concept, and "narrative" has been used as a synonym for "story" for centuries.
:# :Category:Christian narrative categorizes stories by genre (New Testament narratives, Patristic historical writings, Christian fiction and allegory, etc). This is not a "Christian analysis"; it is a literary analysis, irrespective of the belief of the categorizer.
:JHCC (talk) 16:37, 16 September 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: * "Christian" sometimes implies that the narrative is regarded as true.  "Narrative" does not.  Fables, legends, hagiographies, fairy stories, epic poetry, all are narratives.  "Christian narrative" communicates unambigously that the stories originate from Christian tradition; and in some cases it also describes things that are believed to be fact - without implying belief to the slightest degree. — Mark (Mkmcconn) ** 17:40, 16 September 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Frankly, what narrative theology seeks to do or not to do or whether its proponents think the Christian faith is not to be judged by those outside Christianity or not is 100 PERCENT IRRELEVANT.  Using the term "Narrative" does NOT mean that one supports a "narrative theological method" or that Christianity should not be studied by academia or outside scholars.  :Category:Christian narrative was not created to prove or disprove the Christian faith, it was created to categorize STORIES (both true and untrue, biblical and biblical, historically verifiable and unhistorically legendary) told by and about Christians and Christianity.  The fact that proponents of a new school of theological thought have chosen to maintain that Christianity should not be judged by those outside it makes no difference at all to the meaning of the word "narrative".  Look in any dictionary you want.  If you can find a definition that states or implies that "narrative" affirms or implies the truth of the story told, I'll reconsider.  Until then, do not let the perceived anti-scholarly bias of a minority group of theologians taint your understanding of a standard English word.  JHCC (talk) 19:02, 16 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Narrative vs mythology

message: Can I suggest that this category should be a subcategory of neither Middle East mythology nor European mythology. Wil Christianity obviously has Middle Eastern origins, much of the mythology derives from European sources. We should only make a category a subcategory if all of its contents belongs in the parent category, and cleary (from the fact that the two parents are mutually exclusive) articles should not belong in both. We can add individual articles to Middle-East or European as appropriate. DJ Clayworth 16:59, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Regional mythology

message: Though I know of course that every Wikipedia retains its own policy, and that pages or categories maintained or deleted on a linguistic version have not to follow the same treatment on any other version, I think it may be interesting for the followers of this page (at least those who can read French) to be informed that a similar category on :fr has just been deleted with a very obvious consensus for deletion.
This consensus was mostly founded on scarcity of mentions of "christian mythology" in scholar referrences.
Here is a link to the debate on :fr. French Tourist (talk) 20:22, 13 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Deletion debate on Wikipedia in French