Era uma vez, para a alma: uma revisão dos efeitos do storytelling nas tradições religiosas

Abstract

Stories are among our most basic units of communication. We are socialized through

narrativity, though we can be educated through rationality. The role of stories in a social explanation was analyzed in fields as diverse as psychology,sociolinguistics,political sciences, history, anthropology,law and communication. Human beings think, perceive, imagine and make moral choices according to their narrative structures. However the effects of sharing narratives have been well documented for children in educative environments, as culture carriers, and for the sick people, relatively small academic attention was focused on how listening to narratives affects the members of traditions and spiritual communities. Though, storytellers themselves have recognized for long time the power of narratives to take the listeners from the pain in a moment to the “and they all lived happily ever after”. Oral tales came before written texts in all spiritual traditions. To focus the discussion, three terms are clarified: spirituality, faith and religion. Here, an intersection is given to frame the discussion of stories: attention is given to the use of oral stories inside spiritual practices, to goals that generate faith and to religious institutions. People have a basic necessity of spirituality to help them in giving sense to the world and frame their choice on what to believe or reject, determine what to valorize and guide to behavioral choices. Religions offer more specific structure, support and foundation for a central spiritual need. Storytelling is a vital tool for reaching these necessities and goals.