1. What is the shape of the
biblical narrative?
(A pre-critical question)

2. From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.
The place where we are right
Is hard and trampled
Like a yard.
But doubts and loves
Dig up the world
Like a mole, a plow.
And a whisper will be heard in the place
Where the ruined
House once stood.
Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai

4. Eden Heaven
Fall Salvation
History/
The world
Hell

5. Platonic Ideal Platonic Ideal
Fall Atonement,
purification
Into
Aristotelian Aristotelian
Real
Real
Hades

6. Pax Romana Pax Romana
Civilization,
Rebellion development,
into colonialism
barbarism Barbarian/ assimilation
pagan
world
Destruction,
defeat

7. Is there an
alternative
understanding?

8. sdrawkcab gnidaer
Rick Warren, Billy Graham, Charles Finney, John Wesley (or Calvin), Luther,
Aquinas, Augustine, Paul, Jesus
reading forwards
Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Jesus

9. Exodus: Liberation & Formation

10. Exodus: Liberation & Formation
Genesis: Creation and Reconciliation

11. Isaiah: Peaceable Kingdom - Justice and
Mercy
Exodus: Liberation & Formation
Genesis: Creation and Reconciliation

12. G
e
n
Isaiah: Peaceable Kingdom - Justice and
e
Mercy
si
s
Exodus: Liberation & Formation

13. Spiral dynamics
Integral thinking
Emergent thinking

14. Coral: one with God
__________
Turquoise: holistic, unifying
Yellow: integral, systemic, otherly
__________
Green: pluralist, relativist, globalist
Orange: individualist, rationalist, ideologue
Blue: nationalist, rules, codes
Red: feudal, power-oriented
Purple: tribal, magical, animist
Beige: survival, instinctual, “reptilian”

15. Coral: one with God
__________
Ultraviolet: holistic, unifying
Violet: integral, systemic, otherly
__________
Indigo: pluralist, relativist, globalist
Blue: individualist, rationalist, ideologue
Green: nationalist, rules, codes
Yellow: feudal, power-oriented
Orange: tribal, magical, animist
Red: survival, instinctual, “reptilian”

16. Coral: Quest for theosis
__________
Ultraviolet: Quest for sacredness
Violet: Quest for ubuntu (otherliness)
__________
Indigo: Quest for honesty
Blue: Quest for Individuality
Green: Quest for Independence
Yellow: Quest for power
Orange: Quest for security
Red: Quest for survival

17. Coral: Quest for theosis
__________
Ultraviolet: Quest for sacredness
Violet: Quest for ubuntu (otherliness)
__________ 4
Indigo: Quest for honesty
Blue: Quest for Individuality 3
Green: Quest for Independence
Yellow: Quest for power 2
Orange: Quest for security
Red: Quest for survival
1

18. Coral: Quest for theosis
__________
Ultraviolet: Quest for sacredness
Violet: Quest for ubuntu (otherliness)
__________
Indigo: Quest for honesty
Blue: Quest for Individuality
Green: Quest for Independence
Yellow: Quest for power
Orange: Quest for security
Red: Quest for survival

19. Cultures may include two
or more zones, but will
have a center of gravity in
one.
They may regress.

20. Development =
1.Differentiate/Transcend
2.Integrate/Include

21. If we don’t differentiate or
transcend, we experience
stagnation, fixation and
stuckness.
If we don’t integrate and include,
we experience disassociation
and a backward attack-focus.

22. Coral: Quest for theosis
__________
Ultraviolet: Quest for sacredness
Violet: Quest for ubuntu (otherliness)
__________
Indigo: Quest for honesty
Blue: Quest for Individuality
Green: Quest for Independence
Yellow: Quest for power
Orange: Quest for security
Red: Quest for survival

23. First tier zones think in terms
of right/wrong and good/evil.
Other zones are evil/wrong:
our zone is good/right.

24. Second tier zones think in terms of
appropriate and adequate.
Other zones are adequate for
their times and situations; we seek
the zone that is appropriate for us
here and now.

25. Think of climbing a ladder.
You gain a new and wider view from each
rung.
Your earlier view was not wrong - only
partial.
Early zones truly describe the way the
world looks to people at that vantage point.
You couldn’t get to the higher rungs if it
weren’t for the lower rungs.

26. This approach is not absolutist.
It doesn’t claim one view is right and
previous (or later) ones are wrong.
Nor is it relativist.
It doesn’t say that no views are truly
right, but only think they are.
It says all views are partial and that
greater wholeness is better than lesser
wholeness.

27. St. Paul seems to agree:
When I was a child, I spoke and thought
and reasoned like a child,
But when I became an adult,
I gave up childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror dimly,
But then face to face.
Now I know in part; then I shall
understand fully,
Even as I have been fully
understood.

28. So faith, hope, and love abide, these
three;
But the greatest of these is
love.
I will show you the most excellent
way.
Follow the way of love.
Amen.

29. Exercise:
Consider the following in light of the spiral
dynamics schema: Coral: one with God
__________
Your life Ultraviolet: holistic, unifying
Violet: integral, systemic, otherly
Your church __________
Indigo: pluralist, relativist, globalist
Your denomination Blue: individualist, rationalist, ideologue
Green: nationalist, rules, codes
Your nation Yellow: feudal, power-oriented
Orange: tribal, magical, animist
The world Red: survival, instinctual, “reptilian”
Where is the center of gravity?
Where are the points of tension?
Where are breakthroughs happening?

30. Coral: one with God
__________
Ultraviolet: holistic, unifying
Violet: integral, systemic, otherly
__________
Indigo: pluralist, relativist, globalist
Blue: individualist, rationalist, ideologue
Green: nationalist, rules, codes
Yellow: feudal, power-oriented
Orange: tribal, magical, animist
Red: survival, instinctual, “reptilian”