Fifteen years ago George Stroup wrote an impressive book on The Promise of Narrative Theology. It sought to introduce and consolidate a way of doing theology that had emerged during the previous ten years. It also sought to suggest that narrative theology was not just another fad, soon to pass away as some predicted. It has not passed away. But perhaps it should have done so? Stanley Hauerwas – often cited as a narrative theologian – has written that ‘one can be told once too often that “God made man because he loves stories.” ’ Hauerwas is concerned that narrative should not be thought a general theological category dominating all others, for ‘Jesus is prior to story’.

The present book seeks neither to make good on Stroup's promise nor to announce the passing of a theological fashion. This is because it understands narrative theology as one thematic among many, which at best emphasises what is presupposed in all theology. Not all theology need make the emphasis, but all theology should presuppose what a narrative theology emphasises: the priority of the story of Jesus Christ. Hauerwas continues his comment on the priority of Jesus by noting that ‘Jesus’ life and resurrection can be displayed only narratively’. He thus acknowledges an intimate connection between person and story; so intimate that it goes beyond prioritising one over the other. It is the story of Jesus that is prior to any narrative category or other conceptuality. Whatever the interest of some narrative theologians, the theology of the present book is a modest affair: it has no designs on theology in general.