The Makings of a Master Story: Maimonides’ Idolatry Narrative as an Educational Paradigm

The point of departure for this article is James Fowler’s conception of the “master story.” In “master stories,” culture-heroes are portrayed as engaging in certain archetypal activities. These activities are then considered paradigmatic and life-orienting by future generations who adhere to that culture. In keeping with this line of thinking, we offer the rare narrative presented by Maimonides in the opening chapters of his “Laws Concerning Idolatry” as a potential “master story” for Jewish educators. The main section of the essay consists of a close literary analysis of selected passages from the “Laws Concerning Idolatry.” The article concludes by enumerating a series of educational implications that can be gleaned from the narrative, and by indicating some of the problems that might result from an attempt to put some of these implications into practice.