{"id":18976,"date":"2014-06-11T06:00:58","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T10:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=18976"},"modified":"2014-06-10T21:32:26","modified_gmt":"2014-06-11T01:32:26","slug":"imagination-the-christian-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/06\/imagination-the-christian-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Imagination & the Christian life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Mathew Block<\/a> concludes his interview by asking me about what Christians can do to cultivate the imaginative life, as I have been describing it.<\/p>\n

CL: What can people in the church do practically to foster this imaginative way of life and this imaginative way of interacting with the world?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve just written a book with Matthew Ristuccia, a pastor in Princeton, New Jersey, that talks about this sort of thing [book forthcoming from Crossway]. One thing we can do to foster a truly Christian imagination is to reflect on how we read Scripture. The visual arts, film, and music are all important mediums, but it\u2019s really reading that shapes our imagination more than anything else. When we read, we visualize and picture the things we\u2019re reading about; we\u2019re doing the work of imagination in our minds.<\/p>\n

\n

God has given us a book that\u2019s filled with description, stories, symbols, images, true history, and parables. We often read Scripture fairly quickly, just to get ideas from it\u2014to extract doctrine from it. But another way of reading Scripture is to read it in a way that really lets it sink in. Part of that is reading it not only with the intellect and will, but also with the imagination. In our forthcoming book, Rev. Ristuccia and I talk about different ways of meditating on the Word of God. It involves the intellect and thinking about what we\u2019re reading, of course, but it also involves picturing what we\u2019re reading. And it also affects the will, so that it ends in prayer and a refocusing of the heart. I think intentionally reading Scriptures so that it feeds the imagination is a good counter to what we normally feed our imaginations with from the pop-culture around us.<\/p>\n

Finally, Christians can also be careful about what they take into their imaginations. I think the Christian faith liberates us; we have great freedom in the Gospel. So I\u2019m not saying \u2018Only listen to Christian music\u2019 or \u2018Only watch Christian movies.\u2019 It\u2019s possible to listen to non-Christian music and watch non-Christian movies through the eyes of faith and through a Christian sensibility and a Christian imagination. When we do so, we can find valuable things. A violent film might make us more compassionate\u2014might make us less violent. But another film might encourage us to revel in the violence\u2014to enjoy it and fantasize about what it would be like to take revenge and kill someone. That\u2019s harmful. As Christians, we need to be better stewards and more discerning about what we take into our imaginations.<\/p>\n

As Christians, we need to be better stewards and more discerning about what we take into our imaginations.<\/p>\n

A passage from Philippians puts it well: \u2018Whatever is true, whatever is honest, whatever is of good report\u2026 Think on such things\u2019 (Philippians 4:8). That\u2019s a great guide that gives us principles of discernment. It\u2019s liberating, not narrow either: the key part of the text is \u2018whatever.\u2019 Whatever is excellent. There are excellent works by non-Christians that have a good report; they have a great reputation. And typically, the great works are also honest: they will not portray reality in a distorted way, as if sin were something good (you won\u2019t find many great works teaching \u2018It\u2019s good to reject your family\u2019). That\u2019s not what you find. The great works are honest. They\u2019re lovely. And St. Paul tells us to \u2018think on such things.\u2019 Thinking on such \u2018excellent and praiseworthy\u2019 things, imagining such things, is very helpful for the Christian life.<\/p>\n

via Canadian Lutheran Online \u00bb Blog Archive \u00bb The Christian Imagination: An Interview with Gene Veith<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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