I liked the direction I started going in that last post about how religions help us articulate questions, and follow trails left by others who asked similar questions. With that in mind, I’m trying to devise a big list of questions that religions help people ask. But you’ll notice that none of them have anything to do with “Is God real?” or “What happens after I die?” They are instead focused around understanding religions from the perspective of story-systems, which I have laid out in more detail elsewhere. Briefly, the story-systems model is one which I like to use as it allows me to examine and compare cultural artifacts of all shapes and sizes, whether they are religions, or movies, tv news broadcasts, folktales, comic books, family histories, video games, songs, paintings, etc. The questions are grouped into roughly related areas, which will no doubt morph and expand as I develop this approach.

1. Context (Bigger Stories)
   1. What larger stories is this a part of?
   2. What tradition or genre of stories does this fall into?
   3. Is it a comfortable fit or is it a reaction against a tradition or genre?
   4. Outside of its particular genre, what other stories does this one draw upon as references?
   5. Did this story give rise to a genre in its own right?
2. Subtext (Smaller Stories)
   1. Are other stories suggested but not explicitly told within this one? Can you pick out smaller stories inside this one?
   2. What happens if we examine fragments of this story as microcosms of the whole?
   3. What would this story look like if told from a different perspective?
   4. What are some questions you would ask characters in this story?
3. Purpose (Author)
   1. Who made this story, and what purposes might they have had in doing so?
   2. What underlying assumptions would you have to agree with in order to believe this story?
   3. Why is this story structured the way that it is?
   4. What are the challenges in putting together a story like this?
   5. What are some questions you would ask the author?
4. Effects (Audience)
   1. What emotional, intellectual and other effects might this story have on its audience? How could these be different for different types of people?
   2. What are various sets of belief which could be derived from this story?
   3. What are some ways which this story might be acted out?
5. Interpretation (Relevance & Resonance)
   1. What’s your interpretation of this story?
   2. How have experts in a variety of fields interpreted this story? How would ordinary people of different walks of life interpret it?
   3. What if this story is literally true?
   4. Does this story seem to contain metaphor, symbol or other encoded non-literal truths?
   5. What makes this story entertaining or educational?
   6. What do you like and hate about this story? Does it resonate with you on some level?
   7. What character or situation do you identify with the most in this story? Can you imagine this story happening to you? Have you ever had a similar experience?
   8. What do you agree with and disagree with in this story? What feels “true” and what doesn’t?
   9. What do you wish was different about this story?
   10. What other stories and ideas does this one remind you of?
   11. What area does this story make you want to explore next?

I’m trying to fuse together a lot of different areas here into a single unified approach to understanding stories or narratives of all shapes and sizes. Media literacy is one of the areas that sometimes asks a handful of these questions, but I’m trying to apply that kind of critical inquiry in a much broader scope.

Also, in the previous post, I outlined what I’ve seen as three drives in religion, and the questions they seem to be most focused on. More info on those three drives can be found here. The idea I’m starting to come to right now is that these three drives represent different philosophies for dealing with the sets of questions which I outlined above. Each of these approaches emphasizes some questions over others. Again, I’ll be developing this idea in more detail, but here is what I have so far (expanded from previous post):

1. Fundamentalism
   1. How is our story unique, and how can we celebrate and maintain that uniqueness?
   2. What is there to be gained by believing that our story is literally true?
   3. Why do we find it threatening that our story might not be unique?
2. Syncretism
   1. How are other stories similar to this and what can we learn through the process of comparison?
   2. Can any one story be true or complete in itself?
3. Mysticism
   1. What does this story mean to me personally?
   2. Of what use are the meanings defined by those who went before me?
   3. How can I communicate this personal meaning to others who are also seeking?