I’m reading through James Jordan’s excellent study Through New Eyes. Jordan begins the book by stressing the importance of symbolism.
Everything, he argues from scripture, symbolizes God. Humanity, the Word, and Sacraments are special symbols, but the entire creation testifies to the God who made it.
This leads to Jordan’s assertion that ESSENCE precedes EXISTENCE. When God makes a SYMBOL, He is creating reality. Consequently, everything in creation has meaning. Creation testifies to God’s existence and character. Why the diverse universe? Because the infinite God is profoundly diverse. When He speaks to us through people, His Word, and baptism and communication, He communicates His special characteristics.
People use symbols to STRUCTURE reality. We take the symbols God has already imbued with meaning and give Him glory or wrest them our own destruction.
This is crucial to literature in the following ways.
- Every story about people is also a story about God.
- Humanity’s special symbols include WORDS, and one way of evaluating literature is seeing how those words complement the privileged Word of God or attempt to replace it.
- Another of humanity’s special symbols is a ROLE or vocation, and AUTHOR is one of the most privileged roles a person can have. This is because the role hearkens back to God’s role as AUTHOR of creation.
If symbolism matters to the Bible, it matters to readers of literature. We should read accordingly.
Experiments in Criticism 