Adam Blatner

I just found out about a story, “In the Shadow of the Ark,” by Anne Prevoost, who explores the Noah story from the viewpoint of those not chosen to be saved. It strikes me as a good warm-up to a group process of Bibliodrama, exploring through improvised enactment the story, and adding comments by those in the group about how people are thinking—Noah, his family, those not chosen, what are they saying. Were folks in the “other” group all really bad enough to be drowned (a rather unpleasant form of execution)? Was Noah such a sterling character? (This was not demonstrated by subsequent events.) (My own suspicion was that this was propaganda that served the sub-class of scribes and priests who sought uncritical submission and obedience and adulation for them as well as the so-called god they claimed to represent.)

The point I want to make here is that bibliodrama, enacting and exploring the stories in depth, with folks imagining what the various roles are thinking or feeling, and maybe even saying—though none of that is reported in the official story. It’s a way to deepen our process of refinement of thinking and faith beyond mere semi-conscious acceptance. Some people think that this is what spirituality should do, be an active process, not just showing up and doing what is thought to be what others expect.

More about bibliodrama in a chapter of anthology I edited, or google it.