[.ca] Ministry In An Oral Culture: Living With Will Rogers, ... (ISBN 066425506X)

Say what?:
Tex Sample has made a career out of being a good public speaker - in teaching, preaching, and even entertainment venues, Sample is always able to relate to the people at their level, which is where ministry must begin. Sample's technique is tried and true - so much so, that it predates the written language. The Bible, as with many ancient cultures, derives from its earliest origins an oral culture and tradition of oral transmission. Many preliterate societies did this, and many cultures with low levels of literacy do this; however, one of the more surprising discoveries of people such as Sample is the degree to which all literate societies continue a tradition of oral transmission of knowledge, wit and wisdom - things that never get written down, yet always seem to be known. Perhaps the key example of this is Jesus - who never wrote a book, never penned a sermon that got passed along, and never mass produced lecture notes for his student-disciples to copy and memorise for the test. Sample draws on his own experience as a young person growing up in a culture in America that used oral traditions for the 'important stuff', and literacy was reserved for official and necessary things like writing checks, filling out forms, etc. The real pieces of life, the stories of the family, the ways to do things, the expression of love and feeling, these were transferred from person to person orally. The early experiences of Sample relate to the title of his text - when he took his first philosophy course, he was expecting the home-spun 'philosophy' of people like Will Rogers, wisdom stories like Uncle Remus, and oratory skills like Minnie Pearl. When he encountered Socrates, he liked what he read, but he wondered how much better things might have been had Socrates studied along with someone like Will Rogers. Sample continues to draw on his own experience in ministry, education, and family (key sources for any in the oral tradition) as well as the experiences of other oral cultures - Native Americans, ancient peoples, poor people, etc. Sample lays out different primary practices of those in an oral tradition - memorisation, apprenticeship-style learning, learning by concrete example. Think about the parables of Jesus here - a Good Samaritan, a mustard seed, a shepherd with sheep - these are easily identifiable and understandable figures, and the stories are simple enough to be memorised easily. Oral tradition puts tradition-and-practice over theory-and-praxis, highlights 'storytelling' over narrative, looks for relationships and loyalty over the higher-minded concepts of community and solidarity. Oral tradition resists change, but at the same time welcomes adaptation, particularly when it makes for a better story! Sample begins and ends with stories. Characters often take on names significant for their attributes - Jimmy Hope may be a real name, or may not be, but it fits the hope-full aspect of the story very well, if it isn't his real name, it should be. Sample's text is full of humour, wit and wisdom often neglected or forgotten in our modern society. Academia doesn't quite know what to do with such knowledge (other than to study it into all unrecognisability). The value placed on literacy and book-based understanding is such that a direct denigration of oral-tradition knowledge and wisdom seems to be required; do not be deceived. Also do not be deceived at the medium here - there is indeed something somewhat ironic about reading about oral tradition from someone who is trying to keep oral tradition alive. The text 'reads' much like a sermon or a conversation than an academic text, without (surprisingly) losing much by way of translation. There aren't many texts that reference the likes of Ludwig Feuerbach, Alasdair MacIntyre and John Millbank together with Ray Stevens, Minnie Pearl and Uncle Remus. This is a real gem.