Pious fiction

A pious fiction is a narrative that is presented as true by the author, but is considered by others to be fictional albeit produced with an altruistic motivation. The term is sometimes used pejoratively to suggest that the author of the narrative was deliberately misleading readers for selfish or deceitful reasons. The term is often used in religious contexts, sometimes referring to passages in religious texts.

Examples

Religious context

• Historical-critical interpretations of the Hebrew Bible (i.e. the Tanakh or the Protestant Old Testament) often consider portions of the Tanakh/Jewish Bible to be a pious fiction, such as the conquests of Joshua^[1] and the histories of the Pentateuch.^[2][3][4] The Book of Daniel has also been described as a pious fiction, with the purpose of providing encouragement to Jews.^[5]
• Historical-critical approaches to the New Testament sometimes views stories such as the Virgin Birth, the Visit of the Magi to Jesus, and others, as pious fictions.^[6]
• The relationship between the modern celebration of Christmas and the historical birth of Jesus has also been described as such.^[7][8][9]

Other contexts

• Fredrick Pike describes some morale-boosting efforts during the Great Depression as pious fictions.^[10]

See also

• Morality play
• Myth
• Noble lie
• Pious fraud

Notes

1. Borras, Judit, Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, BRILL, 1999, p 117: ".. the overwhelming consensus of modern scholarship is that the conquest tradition of Joshua is a pious fiction composed by the deuteronomistic school …"
2. Pete Enns (28 September 2017). "Briefly, 3 Edgy Things about How the Old Testament Works". Pete Enns. Retrieved 2019-01-15.
3. Pete Enns (21 April 2017). "3 Things I Would Like to See Evangelical Leaders Stop Saying about Biblical Scholarship". Pete Enns. Retrieved 2019-01-15.
4. Stanley, Christopher, The Hebrew Bible: A Comparative Approach, Fortress Press, 2009, p 123: "Minimalists begin with the fact that the Hebrew Bible did not reach its present form until well after the Babylonian exile … most the that the story was formulated by a group of elites who wanted to justify their claims to dominate … In other words, the narrative [of the Hebrew Bible] is a pious fiction that bears little relation to the actual history of Palestine during the period it purports to narrate."
5. Carson, D. A. For the Love of God: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God's Word, Good News Publishers, 2006, p 19: "Many critics doubt that the account of Daniel 4 is anything more than pious fiction to encourage the Jews."
6. Jones, Maurice. New Testament in the Twentieth Century. p. 63.
7. Michael White, L. (4 May 2010). Scripting Jesus: The Gospels in Rewrite - L. Michael White - Google Books. Harper Collins. ISBN 9780061985379. Retrieved 2011-09-27.
8. Top 20 football chants (2006-12-21). "How December 25 became Christmas Day... - Features, Unsorted". Independent.ie. Retrieved 2011-09-27.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
9. The Times^{[dead link‍]}
10. Pike, Fredrick, FDR's Good Neighbor Policy: sixty years of generally gentle chaos, University of Texas Press, 1995, p 79:

    "In the Depression era, a great many Americans, north and south of the border, succumbed to the pious fiction that underlay the Krausist-Areilist-Marxist nonmaterial rewards aspect of good neighborliness… Without the occasional seasoning of pious fictions, concocted by intellectuals who in their delusions of grandeur try to introduce elements of dream live into crude reality, might not the real world be a far more vicious jungle than it is?"