Stories as Theo-Drama

This post may make little sense. I'm writing it so I don't forget something.

A friend recently introduced me to Hans Urs von Balthasar's Theo-Drama Theological Dramatic Theory. That's actually an over-statement. I have not read Balthasar's epic five-volumes, although they sound fascinating. I may never read them. Long theoretical tomes put me to sleep. The books are also expensive, which is just as well because I've run out of bookshelves. All of that is nonsense, however. From the short reviews I've read Balthasar's Theo-Drama meshes well with my own The Moral Premise.

In short, ideas, theories and theology only matters when action is taken.

Or, in terms of an oft repeated writer's adage: show don't tell. 

Another has said, "Intentions do not matter. Right and wrong live in the realm of action." 

Channeling another writer:

We know nothing about God—only what he did. 

And, from some long forgotten playwright:

All the world's a stage
and all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. 

In a screenplay or stage play there are six grammatical elements: Scene-heading, Action, Character, Parenthetical, Dialogue, and Transition—but only two really matter—Action and Dialogue, the actions of moral agents—what they do and say.

It seems, therefore, that all that matters are the "acts" of the characters on stage or screen. 

By extension, theology only matters when moral agents act. (Yes, yes, of course, Jesus warned us of the sin of envy, jealousy, lust can be in the heart (mind) a sin. But then, in God's transcendent justice invisibles are real. But that's God, not human agents who can only judge acts and not thoughts...although they try. 

What does this mean?

It means that stories of humans taking action and suffering consequences are works of theology.