For many Christians imagination tends to remain
beneath the surface submersed under reason, logic, or sense observation.
Someone recently made the argument that Christianity was rational to the core,
when I suggested that imagination was necessary for belief in God and following
Christ. Contesting my proposal went something like: reasoning and truth has to
do with the facts, not imagination. Christians can sometimes even go further.
Imagination, they suggest, is all about make believe and pretending, not what’s
real. It has nothing to do with reading the Bible or the Christian faith and
will end up leading you away from God. Beware of imagination.
Thus, one of the shocking things that arises when
discussing imagination with Christians is that they often see imagination as
merely something to be avoided. This perspective is not only unfortunate, but
unrealistic and stifling. One-sided and false portrayals like this, I suggest,
hold us captive. When Christians argue that imagination has no relevant
significance for the knowledge of God, an engagement with the biblical text,
and a perception of the natural world, they are failing to embrace what is
true; knowledge, engagement, and perception are imagination dependent.
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