The Imagination
The Divinely-gifted discernment tool
This is an excursus from my intended series run on illuminating
the Cosmic War in the Bible.
It occurred to me during my holiday hiatus that to see this in Scripture
requires something of an Indiana Jones-level appreciation for GOD's 'meta':
you have to see behind the (sometimes unpronounceable) Hebrew names,
and be ready to accept the High-History as presented—
what our society condescendingly labels as "fantasy" since the mid-20th Century.It is common for Christianity to be judged as flat, if not irrelevant. Thus, before many are even able to engage theology, to appreciate its richness and the benefits one receives from studying it, they have already moved on to other spiritualities more subservient to their perceived needs.
Christians, too, are guilty of the belief that studying theology is “what my Pastor does” or the “matter of (stuffy) academics.” For many, the study of theology conjures up images of chilly libraries, musty books, and the kind of jargon that requires a person to read the same paragraph overmuch just to get a purchase on the concepts. Unfortunately, this attitude seeps its way into the mind, so that many of us become convinced that attending Bible studies, keeping up with personal devotions, or even paying attention to sermons is an exercise in futility.
Since at least the time of Christ’s ministry, Story has been an oft-used whetstone for studying theology. C.S. Lewis wonderfully articulates the reason:
“The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by ‘the veil of familiarity’.…If you are tired of a real landscape, look at it in a mirror. By putting bread, gold, horse, apple, or the very roads into a myth, we do not retreat from reality: we rediscover it. As long as the story lingers in our mind, the real things are more themselves.”1
If Story can work its magic on food, or can veil us from "watchful dragons" to bring us along the road to repentance, then why not also aiding us in theological study? Yet when it comes to using Story, not just any kind of literature will do:
"Fantasy" fiction is the best way to explore the Christian faith theologically.
Lewis writes in another essay:
“The Fantastic or Mythical is a Mode available at all ages for some readers; for others, at none. At all ages, if it is well used by the author and meets the right reader, it has the same power: to generalise while remaining concrete, to present in palpable form not concepts or even experiences but whole classes of experience, and to throw off irrelevancies. But at its best it can do more; it can give us experiences we have never had and thus, instead of ‘commenting on life’, can add to it.”2
God has created the human creature to be an imaginative creature.
Screenwriter, Author, and film critic, Brian Godawa, makes an essential point when he says:
“[Modern] theology’s emphasis on systematic and scientific discourse places it in danger of not merely inadequacy but a serious misunderstanding of God, for the structure and method of theology affects the content of theology. If the Bible communicates God and truth (theology) primarily through story, image, symbol and metaphor, then a theology that neglects those methods is not being strictly biblical in its method.”3
Like the rest of our nature, our imagination is also fallen, and can be used for base actions. Thus, like our bodies and our other mental faculties, our imaginations too must be trained and conformed regularly, for these are certainly sanctified by God along with everything else He has immersed in His efficacious Word. The best way to train our imaginations is through studying His Word; the best way to have them tested is by engaging theology. Lewis noted that he preferred doctrinal books to regimented devotional books, such as Kempis’s On the Imitation of Christ, adding:
“I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.”4
Our Father of heavenly lights has gifted us ‘Story’ to aid us in theology-tentatio.
We know that God has sanctified the use of imagination for theological study because of the vivid imagery and various narrative structures contained in Scripture, intended to captivate our minds and work our imaginations. And we know that stories (i.e. fiction) are blessed by God to convey His theological treasures because our LORD used them often as part of His discourses and preaching; we know them as parables.
Writing on Bo Giertz’s The Hammer of God, Dr Veith says5:
“He makes the case for orthodox evangelical Christianity
not by setting forth an intellectual argument, but by writing a novel.”
We will next take up this word, fantasy, and determine if the label is useful or if it must be recalibrated…
C. S. Lewis, ‘Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings’, On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature.
C.S. Lewis, ‘Sometimes Fairy Stories Say Best What’s to be Said’, On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature. (This essay also includes Lewis’s afore-cited “watchful dragons” image.)
Brian Godawa, Word Pictures: Knowing God Through Story & Imagination. Godawa goes on to make another worthy point: “A scientific approach to God will ultimately depersonalize God through analysis, and redefine Christianity through philosophical abstraction, rather than embodying God’s personal presence through lived-out stories.”
C.S. Lewis, “On the Reading of Old Books”, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics.
Gene Edward Veith, “Fiction as an Instrument of the Gospel” in A Hammer for God: Lectures from the Centennial Symposia, and Selected Essays by the Bishop. Angus Menuge, in Aslan’s World: Biblical Images and Themes In ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’, makes the same observation of Jesus concerning the inquiry of the expert in the law: “Jesus does not reply with a doctrine of systematic theology. He tells the parable of the Good Samaritan.”