THESPIAN THEOLOGY
This is a fancy name for stories and plays about God. These I have used throughout the last sixty years as a lay preacher, first in the Methodist Church and then in the Uniting Church.
The stories range from simple ones that would appeal to young Sunday School children from the age of about six, to very deep stories that are designed for adults. The titles don't necessarily convey the point being discussed but here they are:
FOR LITTLE CHILDREN
The Crane Driver, Living Water, "Me" Dust, The Gold-Plated Ice-Cream, The World, The Silver Trumpet, The Miller By The Sea, Stella, Halley's Comet.
FOR OLDER CHILDREN
The Orange Pip, Two Camels Take a Cruise, The Three Wise Camels, Thomas the Tank Elephant, The Monkey Who Wanted to be a Boy, The Ventrillocat.
FOR ADULTS
The Man Who Lost God, The Guided Tour, The Petition, The Creation Window, The Little Black Angel, An Angel in Hades, The Rubbish Folk.
PLAYS
The plays are mostly dialogues that I have presented in worship in place of the sermon. Each has a specific venue where two people might happen to meet and begin to chat. The advantage of the dialogue technique is that the two characters can represent opposite views on some subject. The audience or reader is invited to make up their own mind. The titles mostly refer to the location.
In Rumbles Cafe, At The Sheep and Goats Pub, At the Footy, On Eastwood Station, The Train of Life, In Grandpa's Nursing Home, At Covent Garden Theatre, The Prodigal Daughter, Waiting for the 545, Face to Face.
The final three plays involve several characters. Table Talk is based on Martin Luther's book with the same name. An Outback Christmas Story is an account of the birth of Jesus, based on the Gospels but supposedly written by a nine-year-old boy adapted for a Christmas pageant in the New England area of NSW. Creation 101 imagines a class for gods, learning to create a universe. The three pupils are Yahweh, our God, and the Greek gods, Zeus and Aphrodite. It isn't an attempt to promote polytheism, but rather to point out the choices that God must have made in creating our world. It's theologically sacrilegious if taken literally, but I hope it gets across some deep ideas about the God, including the fact that he chose to give us free will, even though he could foresee the consequences.