SanghaToday Blog

Storytelling is a very ancient way of getting people interested and convinced about your viewpoint. We see, a very perfect example of this power of storytelling in Biblical narrations as well as other religious books. Generally, stories are very engaging for the younger audience. That is why many books for children such as ‘Jesus for children’ and ‘Jesus in me’ are seen in the church resources. These books are narrative compilations of Biblical events written in the form of children’s stories.

Storytelling can be considered as a very creative way of communication. The basic concept behind a story is to convey an idea, a point, awareness or a message in a more engaging way. The stories carried certain influential beauty which drew, an audience to imagine themselves as an element or character of the story. Although, many think of storytelling as man’s inborn capability or instinct, other consider it an upshot of man’s natural desire of being respected or prasied on their achievements. The latter theory of storytelling as a desire secondary to human nature is deemed quite true as the oldest evidence of storytelling were descriptions of real events rather than imaginary. However, this statement still does not entirely define storytelling, as we have seen it evolve immensely all through the time, and so did the motives and desires behind it.

Amazingly, the very first evidence of man’s use of art and skill as a form of communication dates back to the primitive era of about 35,000 years ago. The astonishing discovery of Aboriginal cave paintings revealed, a fascinating account of a hunt in the form of visual slideshow. This was perhaps man’s first endeavor to boast his supremacy and victory. Many other examples of such factual events in the form of illustrations are discovered dating back to the primate’s world.

Later on, as the civilizations began to develop, we see a very strong association between religions and stories. The stories became so powerful that people actually began to think of the myths as Gods. In Egyptian civilization, while the hieroglyphs tell the stories of power, strength and might of the Pharaohs, they also provide a very thorough account of religious beliefs and the life after death. In ancient Rome, Greek, China and India the stories took a very dramatic and supernatural forms and these myths ultimately became the gods.

regardless of being being fictional, these myths were so powerful because they were based on strong ideals and moralities and were very much like a guide for human behaviors and ethics. It was in the same time when performing art became a popular story telling medium. This tradition flourished and took a major global exposure in during the Shakespeare era, whose stories were also a sarcasm on the evils of society. The Shakespeare method of storytelling is regarded as the basic plot of modern story telling. The only diversity is the media which traveled the distance through paintings, narrations, literature, theatre and then electronic media. Movies are probably the most captivating medium of storytelling now, none of the ancient forms has died out yet. By this fact we can suppose that no matter what came next, storytelling will always be there.