In the year before we left, I read two books that really influenced how we took our sabbatical with four kids, and I am eternally grateful. The first book I read was David McCullough’s Mornings on Horseback (a thick biography of Theodore Roosevelt). I know that a biography of a president seems like an odd… Continue Reading
[Tolkien] knew that we mostly lack the will to do right, rather than the knowledge of what is right, and so his tales bring the moral imagination to the aid of the will. https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/11/42732/ Continue Reading
Below are two works of Christian imagination. Both attempt to depict what it means for Christ to invite sinners to Himself, and how sinners should understand themselves. On closer examination, however, they are nearly opposite in meaning. We do not see the same Christ, the same Gospel and the same dilemma of the sinner in… Continue Reading
Our world drowns in information, facts, bites, noise, opinions, and other particulars. Yet, even the best of our students have the most difficult time connecting one thing to another. It is myth that allows us to transcend the immediate and the ephemeral… Source: Imagination and Conservatism – The Imaginative Conservative Continue Reading
Leland Rykan on the benefit (and, indeed, necessity) of literary theological imagination. The Bible is the definitive word on justification, but it is not the only word. If we benefit from sermons and theological articles on justification, we can benefit from literary portrayals of it. Theological exposition enables us to know the truth about justification… Continue Reading
Greg Stiekes on the importance of the imagination for leaders: A true leader has the quality of imagination. A leader offers real guidance to others because he or she is able to perceive something that is not immediately accessible in the physical world, to “see” the unseen, to envision possibilities, to draw inferences, and to… Continue Reading
I got a great question recently, and it’s one I’ve given a lot of thought to since Christopher was born last June. The question was about baby and toddler books. Last summer I went through our picture books and board books to set up the bookshelves in our nursery, and what I found is that… Continue Reading
This is a good discussion of the moral imagination. It addresses specifically how necessary good children’s stories are in forming the moral imagination, but it also gives a very good definition as well: The moral imagination is not a thing, not so much a faculty even, as the very process by which the self makes… Continue Reading
This is a series to further explain the articles of “A Conservative Christian Declaration.” . We affirm that ordinate affections are often expressed and evoked through works of imagination, which function through simile and metaphor. Among these are music, poetry, literature, and other arts. The Word of God itself is a work of imagination. At least… Continue Reading
The Hypostatic Union The Word set forth before the world began Wrote out the mournful tune in minor key: The crying of the infant Son of Man. There was no way that they could understand How that small and helpless child could be The Word set forth before the world began. Joseph wondered at… Continue Reading
Jonathan Edwards has some fairly well-developed theories of art and aesthetics that can inform discussions of Christian aesthetics today. In particular, Edwards discussed the importance of the imagination, which he saw as a sign of the work of the Holy Spirit since it helps believers perceive spiritual reality. Here is a relevant passage from Experiencing God:… Continue Reading
This is a fantastic book. Continue Reading
The first and primary object of preaching… is to produce an impression. It is the impression at the time that matters, even more than what you can remember subsequently… Edwards, in my opinion, has the true notion of preaching. It is not primarily to impart information; and while [the listeners are taking] notes you may… Continue Reading
A primary question we often ask in programming proclamation music for worship is, “How will this music work to attract people’s attention?” Perhaps we should ask, “Does this music reflect anything of God’s character?” The latter question seems to me to indicate a confidence in God’s own attraction in and of Himself. It seems unavoidable… Continue Reading
I’m going to say more soon about James K. A. Smith’s book, Imagining the Kingdom–I don’t agree with all of how he frames the conversation, but his general thesis and applications are outstanding–but here’s a bit just to whet your appetite: Christian liturgical practices and spiritual disciplines are not just means of personal renewal; they remake… Continue Reading
Did you see The Bible movie produced for the History Channel? I confess to you that, being fully immersed in New Testament studies for going on two years now, my interest is peaked. Especially after reading some of the reviews, like the one I saw this morning which reads something like, “Hollywood Finally Got It… Continue Reading
Yes, I mean it. You need to read this book. Not only that, you need to read it in a particular way, which is, out loud and to your children—or grandchildren or nieces and nephews or babysitting kids or whatever children you have within earshot. If you are so old and crotchety that you cannot… Continue Reading
Many of the pastors I have met are unwitting moderns. I should know, for I am also a pastor, and a recovering modern. That is, I am someone who believed the lies of scientism: that the way to know reality is by fact-collecting, and that humans are capable of being completely objective in their fact-collecting.… Continue Reading
The cultivation of ordinate affection depends on several areas we have already covered in this series. A pastor determined to conserve biblical Christianity will be conserving several areas, each of which affect the others. Bear with me as we tie several elements already discussed to the shaping of the affections. Since regeneration is essential to… Continue Reading
What I have described in this series is nothing more than historic conservative Christianity—Christianity that aims at conserving God’s truth both doctrinally and aesthetically. It is popular today to speak deridingly about “cultural conservatism” vs. “theological conservatism.” Most evangelicals and increasing numbers of fundamentalists claim that cultural conservatism is at best unnecessary and at worst legalistic. For example, Mark… Continue Reading