Q & R: Translating in Bulgaria …

Here’s the Q:

I’ve been reading your book “Everything Must Change” and because I like it very much I’ve been telling my friends about it, but when they asked me to translate bits of it for them to read, I hit a stone wall. The ideas you express are quite new to the Christian public in my country and we don’t have the terminology to express them, so I kind of have to invent it. I’ve read numerous articles on postmodern philosophy trying to find good equivalents in my language for “narrative” and especially “framing story”, but I haven’t been able to find any which would fit perfectly.
Could you please provide a brief explanation of these two terms, the way you use them in your book, and maybe some synonyms, if there are such.
Looking forward to hearing from you,

Here’s the R:

I’m so glad you’re finding the book helpful.
I think the word narrative could be translated simply with the word story, or maybe “story we live by” or “story that shapes our lives.”
And “framing story” might be “story that shapes our whole culture” or “story that shapes our civilization.”
If your friends are familiar with the term “world view,” you might suggest that what really shapes our world view is a story … that human societies don’t simply live by ideologies or philosophies alone, but they live by stories, big stories, stories that tell them where they’re from, where they’re going, what’s important, what’s wrong, what needs to be done, and so on.
I hope that helps … God bless you in Bulgaria!