It's time to bring this short series on Sanctified Imagination to a close. Over the past few weeks, we've seen how using our imagination can be a friend to our life of faith in several different ways. In all of these, some common threads have emerged — three positive, and one more challenging. I'd like … Continue reading Sanctified Imagination: Part 6 – Concluding Thoughts
So far, these reflections on the possibilities of a sanctified imagination have stayed within the bounds of traditional practices and ways of experiencing God. Today I want to push out a bit further and explore the fuller possibilities of our active imaginations, and even full-fledged fantasy to draw us closer to God. Fantasy means many … Continue reading Sacred Imagination: Part 5 – Fantasy
In the last post in this series on Sanctified Imagination, I shared the story of how a sanctified imagination allowed an old friend of mine to see a different story for herself than the one she had been taught and had been living out, a new story which allowed her to receive the grace of … Continue reading Sanctified Imagination: Part 4 – Imagination as Resistance
Lately, I've been thinking about the positive place imagination, and specifically a sanctified imagination, can have in the life of faith. The first post in this little series looked at why imagination has been controversial within Christianity; the second looked at the role the imaginative symbols of visions and dreams have played in the mystical … Continue reading Sanctified Imagination: Part 3 – Scriptural Imagination
The other day I introduced the claim that imagination is one of the most powerful allies in the spiritual life. Today I'd like to see how this plays out in the Western mystical tradition and some its more casual contemporary manifestations. Despite Christianity's general suspicion of the imagination, both the Scriptures and mystical tradition (to … Continue reading Sanctified Imagination: Part 2 – Mystical Creativity
Matthew Root 