📖 Biblical Definition
The Bible is the metanarrative — the one true overarching story that gives meaning to all of human history. It moves from creation to fall to redemption to consummation. God creates the world good (Genesis 1:31), man rebels and the creation is cursed (Genesis 3), God initiates a plan of redemption through His Son (Ephesians 1:9-10), and all things will be made new at Christ's return (Revelation 21:5). This is not merely one story among many — it is the story within which all other stories find their meaning. Every human life, every nation, every age exists within this divine plotline.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
The term "metanarrative" did not exist in 1828; it is a 20th-century philosophical coinage.
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NAR'RATIVE, n. That which is narrated; a relation in words or writing of the particulars of any transaction or event, or of any series of transactions or events. Note: Webster knew the concept of a grand narrative — it was simply called "providence" or "the history of redemption." The coinage of "metanarrative" as a technical term came from those who wished to reject such overarching accounts of reality.
📖 Key Scripture
• Ephesians 1:9-10 — "Making known to us the mystery of his will... to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth."
• Revelation 21:5 — "Behold, I am making all things new."
• Acts 17:26-27 — "He made from one man every nation... having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place."
• Colossians 1:16-20 — "All things were created through him and for him... and through him to reconcile to himself all things."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Postmodernism rejects all metanarratives while smuggling in its own.
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Postmodernism's central dogma is suspicion of all metanarratives — the claim that no grand story can be universally true. This is itself a metanarrative: "the story that there are no true stories." It is self-refuting at the foundational level. Meanwhile, the postmodern world has simply replaced the biblical metanarrative with secular alternatives: the progress myth, the liberation narrative, the evolutionary epic. Everyone lives within a metanarrative; the only question is whether your metanarrative is true. The biblical metanarrative — Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration — is not one option among many. It is the framework within which reality actually operates, revealed by the Author of history Himself.
Usage
• "Scripture is not a collection of moral lessons — it is the metanarrative, the single story of God redeeming a people for Himself from creation to new creation."
• "Postmodernism claims suspicion toward all metanarratives, but this claim is itself a metanarrative — the grand story that there are no grand stories."
• "Every worldview operates within a metanarrative; the honest question is not whether you have one but whether yours is true."