The power of Metaphors

Ironically, Christians who are often more sceptical about the dominance of science are also more committed to so-called 'literal' readings of the Bible. I say 'ironically', because this obsession with things having to be literally true is partly the result of the scientific empirical method - the belief that things should be capable of being pinned down, so that we know what we mean. (It is also ironic, incidentally, because science itself is increasingly conscious of its own use of metaphors - string theory, black holes, etc are all metaphors.) What is often not appreciated is the way in which metaphorical readings of texts are in effect the only way to make sense of them! For example, a literal reading of "God is my rock" produces absurd and contradictory beliefs - God is steadfast, sure, but God is also cold and hard!
A metaphor works by playing creatively with two sets of ideas, critically allowing for truth and untruth to sit happily together - so the various explanations of the effectiveness of Jesus' death on the cross only work as metaphors: if any one if pushed to its literal limits, it begs too many questions about the nature of God and God's actions. Instead, each one points to valuable insights, but not the whole truth in itself. So yes, God is angry with the awfulness of sin, and God's sense of justice needs to be met - but don't push this too far, because it needs counterbalancing with God's scandalous love and mercy, God's free gift of forgiveness, and the recognition that the death came about because of gritty political reasons - Jesus had provoked the powers-that-be to crush him, thinking that their overwhelming violence would be the last word. But it was not - his death became a victory, by absorbing even the worst that the System can do (of which we are all a part), without resorting to the System's methods (of violence, domination, retaliation), breaking the cycles by exposing them and ultimately allowing the System to be judged and undone by its own excesses.
Of course, each of us has our preferences - some metaphors ring more true than others - but the power of them is the way they point to things beyond our comfort zones, to truths which explode our assumptions and un-do our participation in wider social practices. For the power of a metaphor is particularly in its demand that we should not pin the truth down within us, but should be open to those other insights we prefer to demonise. I must hear my own sermon!