At the beginning of Chaucer’s great work The Canterbury Tales, he defines the best stories as those that are the most moving while still teaching virtue. Chaucer, as a storyteller and a great scholar of the literature of the west, knew the power that stories could have on people and on civilizations. Dante had turned the direction of an empire, and Chaucer was the one who brought Dante to the English speaking world.

But people didn’t read Dante simply to improve themselves. They enjoyed the book, and so they read it, and, by the beautification of virtues and the mockery of vice, Dante’s poetry changed lives. (And continues to do so to this day).

For a story to effectively teach the truth it has to be moving. But the ability to move people with stories can be used for ill in the hands of someone who doesn’t love truth and virtue. You can be moved to sympathize with a murderer by a talented but evil defense attorney with a well crafted story.

It has to begin by being entertaining. It has to move you to tears, or laughter, or joy, or fear, or relief. If a story doesn’t involuntarily move the emotions of the audience then it doesn’t matter if the story encourages virtue. Chivalry was dominant in medieval times because the stories encouraging it were the best.

So Christian storytellers have two tasks before them. Become the best storytellers that they can and become the best Christians that they can. They need to grow in their craft and grow in their sanctification so that they love and tell virtuous stories exceptionally well.

Because, just like in Chaucer’s day, the storytellers that build the imagination of a people build the future of that people. The storytellers that move a people teach that people who they want to become.