Apologetic Imagination
Why Christ’s apologetic model of storytelling can and should be adopted by the Christian artist for the life and witness of the Church.
C.S. Lewis and the "Baptized Imagination"
The story of C.S. Lewis' conversion is well known around Moody Bible Institute. The basic timeline of this reluctant Christian is boyhood, rationalist mentorship, atheism, theism, and (finally) Christianity. Those who have read Lewis' autobiography, Surprised by Joy, can acknowledge each circumstance that eventually led Lewis from disbelief to belief in Jesus Christ as God incarnate, but few recognize the vital role of imagination towards Lewis’ conversion and discipleship. One might be able to say that God took hold of Lewis’ imagination to cast a vision for the Kingdom. It was when he read George MacDonald’s novel Phantastes that Lewis experienced the first tensions between belief and love:
“Nearly all I loved I believed to be imaginary; nearly all that I believed to be real I thought grim and meaningless” [1].
Lewis records that it was this “baptism of imagination” that woke him up to the reality of Jesus Christ and caused him to walk into new life. MacDonald’s work is also recognized for casing key paradigm shifts and insights in the lives of G.K Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, W.H. Auden, and others.
Jesus' Use of Imagination
All throughout the Gospels, Jesus is revealing the realities of his Kingdom through parable, symbolism, and story.In Matthew 13, Jesus explains the purposes of his cryptic and often obscure way of speaking about the Kingdom. In verse 13, Jesus states "this is why I speak to them in parables: 'though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’" John Calvin notes that Christ is making a distinction with those who have ears and those who are deaf to the things of God, yet names the Lord as the only one who can enable us to understand:
"Scripture testifies in other passages, that it is the Lord who pierces the ears, (Psalms 40:7,) and that no man obtains or accomplishes this by his own industry."
Therefore, we look to Jesus' use of analogy as a way to (as Lauren Bortz suggested) engage the imagination and to awaken people to Himself.Jesus demonstrates a compelling apologetic in his interaction with Nicodemus in John 3.[4] Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, burdened by his existential crisis and looking to be nourished. Yet, despite his turmoil, he masks his need with an intellectual conversation with Christ. Jesus sees right through Nicodemus. He meets Nicodemus’ attempt at discussing thoughts by turning him on his head with this “non-religious” answer: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus’ responds to this with confusion, “Born again? But, how can that be?” There was no room in Nicodemus’ reason for a concept like that. In fact, it was distasteful to even imagine. Jesus is no nonsense with those who try to reason themselves into the Kingdom. Jesus soberly and confidently grabs hold of Nicodemus and proclaims that Nicodemus will never know the information he grasps for until he becomes born again.It is here that Jesus Christ meets our hunger for life with startling and a bizarre vision of the Christian life. Jesus offers a rude awakening to expose the puniness of the questions Nicodemus asks in comparison to the only Answer, the Christ, standing before him![5]For my creative element, I wrote this modern retelling of Matthew 24-25 to highlight Jesus' use of narrative analogy:Jesus walks out of the temple where he just finished cursing the seven woes upon the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. Tensions are high and the disciples are looking side-to-side with a face that reads, “did that really just happen?”, like a child that just watched his mom cuss out the manager of the grocery store for refusing her coupons. Jesus heads to the Mount of Olives, where he normally goes to pray, rest, and teach. The disciples silently trail behind him, waiting for a private moment to ask for a further explanation of what just went down in the temple. “Tell us, when are these things going to happen? What will be the sign of your coming?” In their curiosity and carefulness not to awaken the another rebuking, the disciples ask this question. Jesus answers their question with an hour worth of prophecy, warnings against the anti-Christ and deceivers, and the total uncertainty of the end of the age. Jesus says all of these things without a recorded interruption, then goes on to say that “the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins…”What can we learn here about Jesus’ use of narrative analogy? Why does Christ continually describe the kingdom of heaven with incarnate, and most times, confusing metaphors?
Lack of Imagination in the Church
Dr. Clark once said in an Apologetics lecture that there is a mass exodus of millennial Christians leaving the church; millennials that that long to see Christ and the Kingdom in a way that the church doesn't know how to speak to. Rachel Evans wrote an article for CNN titled "Why millennials are leaving the church"[6], exposing the cycle of evangelical consumerism towards millennials:
Time and again, the assumption among Christian leaders, and evangelical leaders in particular, is that the key to drawing twenty-somethings back to church is simply to make a few style updates - edgier music, more casual services, a coffee shop in the fellowship hall, a pastor who wears skinny jeans, an updated Web site that includes online giving. But here’s the thing: Having been advertised to our whole lives, we millennials have highly sensitive BS meters, and we’re not easily impressed with consumerism or performances.
Evans goes on to explain that while many church leaders believe that the young adult demographic are abandoning church because it lacks the "cool factor", millennials are actually leaving because they aren't finding Jesus there. She tactfully points out that many millennials are finding themselves drawn to traditional church liturgies such as Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Episcopal Church, “precisely because the ancient forms of liturgy seem so unpretentious, so unconcerned with being ‘cool’ and we find that refreshingly authentic.”I can't help but wonder what it would look like if instead of changing the "styles" of church for millennials, we would begin to cast grand, exciting, and imaginative visions of what life in Christ truly is. What would it look like to draw from Christ's model of bright, beautiful, and imaginative heeds to live out the Christian life? Perhaps one facet of our memberness is meeting the brother and sister's desire for "authenticity" with our eschatological hope. The world is dark and dim, yet Christ uses our imaginations to give us a picture for eternity, a life beyond the now. A remodeled coffee shop in the fellowship will be outdated in a matter of years, but the promise of true life in Jesus Christ will change our entire being.
Integrating Imagination into Apologetics
Where does imagination fit into evangelical Christianity? If our task as communicators is to cast a vision “on earth as it is in heaven”, it's important that we explore the functionality of our imagination as we communicate the Gospel message. Our apologetic task with media and culture is never to argue our way into the Kingdom, but to see and follow Christ, and perhaps, take on the creative way he confesses what is beyond our imagination.As the needs of a person differ, so should the way we engage people with apologetic tools. There is a “peril of treating our hearers as objects rather than as persons who are claimed by God’s love as one seeks to persuade men by their own intellectual and moral powers."[7] Our use of imagination must be a "tool" in our toolbox, never an isolated method of evangelism. More importantly, the “tools” we used should be only used to advance a process of sowing and reaping, not to debate or argue. No method or technique should undermine the church’s confession and point to something other than Jesus Christ to verify his Lordship. Dr. Clark has said that it us our modern preoccupation with method and technique that puts us in danger of self-lordship.George MacDonald held to the belief that imagination can be a vehicle of truth, so long as it is informed by the True one, Jesus Christ.[8] The closer that the Christian is to Christ the Creator, the more faithful and vibrant the imagination will be. It is communion with Christ is what enables us to see beyond and behind what is visible and to a transcended perceptiveness and depth. It is Jesus who baptizes our imagination to give us a grander, brighter picture of the life and faith He's leading us into. [1] "The Mirror and the Veil." Review. Holy Places Are Dark Places. Www3.dbu.edu/mitchell/documents/HolyPlacesareDarkPlaces.doc. Web.[2] MacDonald, George. Phantastes: A Faerie Romance. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1981. Print.[3] Lewis, C. S. Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1956. Print.[4] "John 3." Holy Bible Esv Bible. N.p.: Crossway, 2016. Print.[5] Thielicke, Helmut. "Jesus' Conversation with Nicodemus by Night." Out of the Depths. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1962. Page 59-70. Print.[6] http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/27/why-millennials-are-leaving-the-church/[7] Bloesch, Donald G. The Christian Witness in a Secular Age: An Evaluation of Nine Contemporary Theologians. Minneapolis: Augsburg Pub. House, 1968. 130. Print.[8] Dearborn, Kerry. Baptized Imagination: The Theology of George MacDonald. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate, 2006. 199 pages.