Parabola Spring 2009, Imagination, The Story Issue

Parabola: Imagination — The Story Issue (Spring 2009)

Parabola, Volume 34, Number 1 (Spring 2009). This issue takes up imagination as a sacred faculty — the power that lets a shaman re-see the world, a storyteller carry a myth across centuries, and a reader be changed by a good tale. It gathers new essays alongside a collection of stories retold from traditions around the world. The full issue is available to read below as a free download.

Stories

Introduction: Flinging the Net — On the reconciling power of good stories, and how a well-told tale returns the listener home changed. (p. 32)

The Heart Eater — Translated and retold by Ishmael Beah. A story carried out of Sierra Leone by the author of A Long Way Gone. (p. 34)

The Odyssey — Introduced by Jean Houston, from Samuel Butler's translation. Houston frames Homer's journey as a map of the soul's return. (p. 39)

Kosiya, the Buddhist Scrooge — Translated and retold by Margo McLoughlin. A Buddhist tale of a miser and the loosening of a closed heart. (p. 44)

Ruth: Where You Go, I Will Go — Retold by Diane Wolkstein. The biblical story of loyalty and belonging between Ruth and Naomi. (p. 52)

A Hen and a Rooster — Retold by Laura Simms. A folk tale rendered by one of America's foremost storytellers. (p. 60)

The Story of Kraka and Ragnar Lodbrok — Retold by Barbara Bluestone. A Norse saga of the legendary Viking king and the woman who matched his wit. (p. 66)

Monkey King: Journey to the West — Retold by Diane Wolkstein. An episode from the Chinese classic of the irrepressible Monkey King. (p. 68)

The Secret of Dreaming — Retold by Jim Poulter. An Aboriginal Australian story of how dreaming entered the world. (p. 76)

The King of the Gods — Translated by Dorji Penjore. A tale from Bhutan and its living oral tradition. (p. 82)

Articles

The Mist Wolf — Stephan A. Schwartz. A shaman, a sacred act, and a world remade through imagination. (p. 6)

Imagination and the Void — Patrick Laude. The place of imagination within the sacred traditions. (p. 12)

Finding the Center, Entering the Land — Geoffrey W. Dennis. The imaginative faculty at work within the Jewish mystical labyrinth. (p. 20)

Imagination — Christian Wertenbaker. A scientist explores the many faces of the imaginative mind. (p. 28)

A Topological Note on the Trinity — Richard Jagacinski. Using imagination to approach a sacred mystery. (p. 87)

A Crack in the World — Thomas K. Shor. High in the Himalayas, an expedition toward a hidden world. (p. 92)

The Generous Image — Barbara Helen Berger. Lessons drawn from the goddess Green Tara. (p. 103)

Book Reviews

Reinventing the Sacred by Stuart A. Kauffman — reviewed by James George. (p. 111)

Beads of Faith by Gray Henry and Susannah Marriot — reviewed by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos. (p. 116)

Acedia and Me by Kathleen Norris — reviewed by Bill Williams. (p. 124)

Endpoint (p. 128)