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The Seventh Story: Us, Them, and the End of Violence
The story we tell about the world shapes how we live. In a fable for grown-ups, presented alongside essays by Brian McLaren & Gareth Higgins, you'll examine six familiar stories that have repeated through history, which have taught us all how to dominate, fear, or withdraw from the world and the beautiful people in it. There is a Seventh Story, a path of openheartedness toward others, and reading this book will inspire you to look anew at the world and your neighbors in creating it. Facing fear, aggression, and violence with the strength to love, and change your story.
191 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2019
77 people are currently reading
131 people want to read
About the author
Brian D. McLaren
124 books553 followersBrian D. McLaren is an internationally known speaker and the author of over ten highly acclaimed books on contemporary Christianity, including A New Kind of Christian, A Generous Orthodoxy, and The Secret Message of Jesus.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
September 30, 2021
I have forever struggled with the binary dynamic of us vs them that surrounds our culture. Higgins and McLaren give help us to revisit the teachings of Rene Girard that give us the 6 stories that have dominated time, history, culture, faith, and kingdom throughout history, and the seventh story that provides a path forward that steps aside from the power structures that destroy and demoralize us and offer us a path that creates an invitation for common good, inviting us to lay down our arguments and excuses and to seek goodness, beauty, and truth in the world around us.
December 16, 2021
The context The Seventh Story provides for understanding human suffering is really helpful and the optimism it espouses is so welcome. I read this alongside An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (not yet finished), just by chance. It was an excellent companion book.
March 9, 2019
When I was first introduced at one of Gareth Higgins’ Movies & Meaning Festivals to the idea that all of the wrong that plagues our planet, including violence and war, racism and genocide, poverty and hunger, and environmental catastrophe, is a result of human beings living out 1 or more of 6 common stories, I was immediately captivated. And in full agreement that our only hope for getting our from underneath the oppression of these stories is to live out of the Seventh Story - the story of love and reconciliation as lived out by Jesus. So I was ready to get the book when it was published.
I appreciated Brian fleshing out these stories in some detail and particularly appreciated chapter 4 where Gareth pointed us to examples of this Seventh Story being told in politics, movies (his specialty), TV, literature and poetry, music, and religion. I have been saying for years that the best TV series I have ever seen is Rectify, perhaps not realizing that it was the effectiveness of this series in speaking to these stories that makes it so provocative. SonI was very pleased to hear Gareth give high praise to this same series.
If anything, I would have liked to have seen a little more depth given in this book to each of these stories and to the examples of these stories being played out in our world. Yet perhaps this would have been beyond the intended scope of this introductory work.
Last night I watched perhaps one of the more effective representations on the screen of the failure of some of these stories, particularly the familiar stories of domination and revolution, to gain independence for Algeria in the amazing movie Battle of Algiers. I was brought back to this book for the help I needed to fully appreciate the story being told in this movie: https://boxd.it/EWNZ9
My deep desire is that in the future I will be more attentive to each of these stories being played out on the large stage of our world and it’s politics, in the movies I see and review, in the literature I read, and on the small stage of my community and of my own life and relationships. I hope that such attentiveness will serve to deepen my awareness and understanding of how the futile and harmful stories I encounter can be creatively and humbly exchanged for the so hopeful Seventh Story.
Oh, and I decided to take one of Gareth’s music recommendations and check out the album representing one of my favourite Seventh Story poets - Rumi (the album Out Beyond Ideas by David Wilcox and Nanc Pettit).
I appreciated Brian fleshing out these stories in some detail and particularly appreciated chapter 4 where Gareth pointed us to examples of this Seventh Story being told in politics, movies (his specialty), TV, literature and poetry, music, and religion. I have been saying for years that the best TV series I have ever seen is Rectify, perhaps not realizing that it was the effectiveness of this series in speaking to these stories that makes it so provocative. SonI was very pleased to hear Gareth give high praise to this same series.
If anything, I would have liked to have seen a little more depth given in this book to each of these stories and to the examples of these stories being played out in our world. Yet perhaps this would have been beyond the intended scope of this introductory work.
Last night I watched perhaps one of the more effective representations on the screen of the failure of some of these stories, particularly the familiar stories of domination and revolution, to gain independence for Algeria in the amazing movie Battle of Algiers. I was brought back to this book for the help I needed to fully appreciate the story being told in this movie: https://boxd.it/EWNZ9
My deep desire is that in the future I will be more attentive to each of these stories being played out on the large stage of our world and it’s politics, in the movies I see and review, in the literature I read, and on the small stage of my community and of my own life and relationships. I hope that such attentiveness will serve to deepen my awareness and understanding of how the futile and harmful stories I encounter can be creatively and humbly exchanged for the so hopeful Seventh Story.
Oh, and I decided to take one of Gareth’s music recommendations and check out the album representing one of my favourite Seventh Story poets - Rumi (the album Out Beyond Ideas by David Wilcox and Nanc Pettit).
March 31, 2021
This gave me a big historical, spiritual context within which to understand where we are in the evolution of human consciousness, and a compelling picture of what could be next, where love is the protagonist rather than human ego. Short and provocative.
July 1, 2023
I saw Klimt’s The Kiss, an exquisite painting full of shimmering gold and passion and love, in the Belvedere Museum in Austria long before I read this book. The feeling of tranquility in the kneeling woman being kissed comes to mind as these authors talk about storytelling. “A great story is what results when humanizing wisdom and grace” meet “technical and aesthetic craft operating at their highest frequencies.” The frequencies in this book run high.
This 6” x 6” book reads at times like an adult fairy tale, and at others, like a wise teacher explaining what doesn’t work in the world, and what will. I love knowing what doesn’t work. My logical mind understands the need to try something different.
The authors tell the history of man’s brain’s capacity for imitation, explaining much of violence and human sacrifice in the world in a respectful storytelling cadence based on the work of French anthropologist Renè Girard (1923-2015). They then contrast that with God’s disinterest in sacrifice.
Evocative discussion of patriarchy and politics, faith and domination, civilizational suicide and the myth of redemptive violence converge and rest on a grassy field of storytelling and how it matters. “If we do not develop adequate images we will die out like dinosaurs” (Werner Herzog).
One of Gareth’s strengths is his knowledge and love of movies. Start at pages 114-115, then 148-150 for movie names of films of solace and provocation. “The way the stories we tell deal with violence is enormously important,” he teaches as he differentiates the-vs-them myth and tells the Seventh Story with love as the protagonist. I agree with him that “the current global crisis is a crisis of storytelling.”
Read this little book and find out how we each can tell a better story that brings light not heat. Read this book to learn how to edit what you see in the world, how to think about it, then tell its story for the common good. Let's imitate these two and their kiss of tranquility into our world of violence. Stories matter. This one deserves to be read.
This 6” x 6” book reads at times like an adult fairy tale, and at others, like a wise teacher explaining what doesn’t work in the world, and what will. I love knowing what doesn’t work. My logical mind understands the need to try something different.
The authors tell the history of man’s brain’s capacity for imitation, explaining much of violence and human sacrifice in the world in a respectful storytelling cadence based on the work of French anthropologist Renè Girard (1923-2015). They then contrast that with God’s disinterest in sacrifice.
Evocative discussion of patriarchy and politics, faith and domination, civilizational suicide and the myth of redemptive violence converge and rest on a grassy field of storytelling and how it matters. “If we do not develop adequate images we will die out like dinosaurs” (Werner Herzog).
One of Gareth’s strengths is his knowledge and love of movies. Start at pages 114-115, then 148-150 for movie names of films of solace and provocation. “The way the stories we tell deal with violence is enormously important,” he teaches as he differentiates the-vs-them myth and tells the Seventh Story with love as the protagonist. I agree with him that “the current global crisis is a crisis of storytelling.”
Read this little book and find out how we each can tell a better story that brings light not heat. Read this book to learn how to edit what you see in the world, how to think about it, then tell its story for the common good. Let's imitate these two and their kiss of tranquility into our world of violence. Stories matter. This one deserves to be read.
February 18, 2024
Domination, accumulation, revolution, victimization, purification, and isolation are the six stories that dominate humankind. Each story tends to pit one group against another either through politics and patriotism or through greed and desire. According to Richard Rohr, "Up to now, Christianity has largely imitated cultural stories instead of transforming them. Reward/punishment and good people versus bad people have been the plot lines..." McLaren and Garet Higgins discuss these stories, describing how they work and how those plot lines impact our lives and living. They agree with Rohr that up til now Christianity has largely imitated these stories. But there is a Seventh Story, the good news story of reconciliation and this is the story that we should be living out. Well written and compelling.
May 12, 2021
The Seventh Story offers an alternate way of perceiving the world. After offering some traditional perspectives (“Us versus Them,” “I want it,” “Let’s overthrow the rules,” stories based on domination or isolation or violence), Higgins and McLaren point to a new story for humanity, a story rooted in community and a commonality in which people begin to co-create a new world. Their perspective is grounded in the Golden Rule—to do unto others as we would have them do unto us—and how such practice would transform all that we know about the world. While the page count may seem daunting, the trim size helps readers understand the benevolence and the hope of the authors toward the audience. While the book offers a simple message, that message contains a profundity needed by our world.
November 13, 2019
A beautiful little paperback that expands Higgins and McLaren's children's story with commentary, quotations, and resources regarding six universal stories that block human flourishing (domination, revolution, isolation, purification, accumulation, and victimization) and a seventh story (reconciliation and liberation) that flows from the Jesus story and promotes flourishing.
March 1, 2024
A Must Read for all who care about the future
This book offers an easy to understand explanation of the stories in which we are all caught up, stories that keep us stuck in a cycle of violence and war. It also offers a powerful alternative story, one that can turn the world around if only we are willing to try living into it.
This book offers an easy to understand explanation of the stories in which we are all caught up, stories that keep us stuck in a cycle of violence and war. It also offers a powerful alternative story, one that can turn the world around if only we are willing to try living into it.
March 17, 2024
This little book provides us all with the explanation for the violence that exists in our world today and what each of us can do individually and in community with ALL others to build a better world through LOVE. I call it Christ's love. Great for small groups and for developing small Seventh Story Circle groups.
March 17, 2025
Generous, thoughtful, expansive, and hopeful. The book is both bold and gentle—and before you ask, yes, they can coexist. That’s kind of the whole point.
The basic argument is that the stories we tell often perpetuate systems of violence, whether we mean them to or not. And by telling a better story, we co-create a better world.
Much more in there. Certainty worth a read.
The basic argument is that the stories we tell often perpetuate systems of violence, whether we mean them to or not. And by telling a better story, we co-create a better world.
Much more in there. Certainty worth a read.
January 13, 2021
Required Reading for Every Conscious Human
Simple, Profound, well documented, quick read and worth rereading probably many times. Like everything simple not so easy to implement but worth a daily intention. Make a commitment, do the work and change the world.
Simple, Profound, well documented, quick read and worth rereading probably many times. Like everything simple not so easy to implement but worth a daily intention. Make a commitment, do the work and change the world.
February 19, 2021
Thought provoking.
December 7, 2023
This book offers a new way of looking at our reality, one in which life flourishes, where heroes do not carry weapons, where fear does not reign. A book to read and re-read and never ever forget.
February 1, 2025
We should all be reading this right now. Deeply hopeful if we allow it to move us.
September 19, 2025
This rubric provides a powerful lens to view all of human history, and it feels so incredibly relevant to the current sociopolitical context and absolutely necessary if humanity is going to evolve.
May 22, 2025
this was a refreshing read - I gained some perspective, learned some history, and appreciated the unique layout of the book. hearing from one of the authors beforehand - Gareth Higgens - about his experiences added depth to the reading experience as well, which is why I love going to author talks so much.
quick read, made life feel a little lighter
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acquired from: Black Bird (author event)
quick read, made life feel a little lighter
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acquired from: Black Bird (author event)
February 20, 2021
Just what we need right now.
This book uncovers myths and stories rooted in violence and clears the way for the story of LOVE and reconciliation to be seen.
This book uncovers myths and stories rooted in violence and clears the way for the story of LOVE and reconciliation to be seen.
October 25, 2024
A seemingly simple read, and yet so much. Irked within it.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews