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imagine that
Robert Pope looks at the role of imagination in faith
At one time or another most of us will have heard the cliché that some people think in words while others think in pictures. It appeals to a common belief that some people are gifted in logic and in the cool practice of reason, while others are more artistically orientated, facing the world and everything in it with creativity, passion and flair. The truth is that such a firm distinction is unlikely to be an accurate reflection of the process of thinking about and understanding ourselves, the world and even our faith. Our minds work so quickly to form images and then to understand them that any sharp division of labour between reason and imagination would appear, in reality, to be a false distinction. They interplay to such an extent that any attempt to separate them is, in fact, no more than an exercise in splitting hairs.
distrust
Having said that, for much of Christian history (and indeed in the development of Greek philosophy prior to the birth of Christ) reason and logic have been exalted to a status far above that given to the imagination. Plato was distrustful of the image-making faculty because it seemed to deal with shadow rather than reality. As a result he declared that there would be no room for the image-makers and the poets in his Republic. Augustine, otherwise the most imaginative of thinkers (as even a cursory reading of The Confessions will reveal) considered true or pure thought to be the highest possible kind of human activity and consequently demoted imagery to a secondary role. In reacting against the Catholic iconography of the Middle Ages, the Reformers – including Luther, Calvin and Zwingli – did not dismiss the imagination outright but considered that images were adequate to preach the gospel only to those weaker souls who were incapable of deep, rational thought. The Reformed imagination was fuelled not by sight (which, according to the New Testament, seems to be the privilege of the eschaton, the end or goal of all things when the creation reaches its final consummation, see e.g. 1 Corinthians 13:12) but by hearing. For, as Calvin said, it is in preaching that ‘Christ is depicted before our eyes as crucified’. For this to be so an act of the imagination is required, but the emphasis on understanding the proclaimed Word tended once again to give priority to the rational faculties in the human mind.
As a result of all this, the imagination has been associated with that aspect of human thought which cannot be trusted. The first recorded use of the word in 1340 connected it to vanity. The philosopher Blaise Pascal called it ‘the queen of lies and error’, while Augustine and Thomas Aquinas both suggested that it was with the intellect that people would truly come to know God.
a positive side
Nevertheless, while it is associated with a secondary and inferior form of thought, there remains something positive about the imagination. There is a qualitative difference between saying that someone has ‘shown flair and imagination’ and announcing that for someone else ‘it’s all in his imagination’. This is reflected in what is called, in recent thought, the turn towards ‘the imaginal’. The term recognises that there is a difference between that which is imaginative and that which is imaginary, the former being the result of our ability to be creative and the latter emerging from a propensity within us to dream, to fantasise and to seek escape from the realities of life. Furthermore, the ‘imaginal’ relates to the claims of modern psychology which sees the activity of the mind as being more complex than the mere appeal to reason with the whole person (mind, feeling and senses as well as external influences such as context, history and learning) involved in understanding the world in which we live. And it is primarily the imagination which is able to unite these factors into a coherent image.
This may (or may not!) be an interesting claim concerning the working of the human mind. But what, if anything, is its significance for the life of faith?
imagining the bible
Perhaps we ought to recognise the role of imagination in interpreting and understanding the Bible. We would do well to remember that the scriptures do not come to us as a collection of logical treatises but as documents replete with story, metaphor, analogy, poetry, imagery and parable – all of which constitute the raw material with which the imagination works. As we read the Bible, so we form images in our mind of how we ought to understand it and live in witness to the events it records. Ought we not also be more imaginative in how we interpret the scriptures, how we preach and how we understand them as the Word of God and how we seek to live by their insights? For in preaching, whether we realise it or not, appeal is made to what Walter Brueggeman calls the ‘zone of imagination’ which lies between the reception of the Word and the salvation which comes as a result of it. This reminds us that preaching is concerned not simply with the repetition of ancient teaching in modern garb but with the transformation of our lives according to the Word of God. When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, our imagination is engaged as we encounter the presence of the risen and ascended Lord. When we consider the world, the imagination enables us to perceive a different future and work towards it according to patterns of justice and righteousness, or according to the pattern of the Kingdom of God. As such, the imagination plays a profound role in Christian service and pastoral care for it is the faculty which enables human beings to perceive hopeful futures and to work towards improving personal lives and changing the world for the better.
This ability to imagine was hailed by the eighteenth century Romantics as a connection between human beings and God. Samuel Taylor Coleridge believed that the ability to form images from our experiences in the world was an analogy of the creative act of God. Using the imagination, then, can be viewed as that human faculty which marks us out as creatures made ‘in the image and likeness of God’. Indeed David Tracy, a Roman Catholic theologian, has suggested that God has imbued the whole creation with a divine revelation which we can know through what he calls an ‘analogical imagination’. Other theologians such as the Presbyterian John McIntyre and the Episcopalian Garrett Green have suggested that the faithful imagination goes about its business forming images under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and according to the patterns revealed to us in the scriptures. As such the Christian imagination is not completely free to create images from nothing. Rather, it creates its images, in part, by uniting what we experience in the world and what we know about the revelation of God. This seems to be exactly the process employed by Karl Barth, the giant of twentieth-century Reformed theologians, when he claimed to prepare his sermons by holding the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.
ecapism
We may still be plagued by a distrust of the imagination as the gateway to fantasy and escapism, but to imagine lies at the heart of what it is to be human and our attempts to understand our world and live practically in it. We need to encourage each other to be more imaginative in our worship, in our service and in our outreach. We need to develop patterns of discipleship which do not drive a wedge between the logical and the imaginative and in so doing favour one over the other. We have to stop believing and acting in such a way that suggests what we always have done will be sufficient to meet the needs of present and future generations. When we allow them to, our imaginations will inspire us with visions and dreams. And such an imagination, informed by the scriptures, inspired by the Holy Spirit in prayer and employed as we gather together in worship, witness and service, will help to move us towards a more hopeful future.
Dr Robert Pope is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Wales, Bangor
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