The Christian Imagination

To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. IF we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives. The closer we come to the heartbeat of God the more we see our need and the more we desire to be conformed to Christ. (Foster, 33)

I really like that description, because it highlights the importance of the relational nature of prayer, and that prayer is a primary means of transformation. And really, if we don’t spend time with God, it probably should come as no surprise that we aren’t as like Him as we’d like to be.

Foster mentions both Martin Luther and John Wesley. I’ve always marveled at Luther saying that he “had too much business” to not spend three hours a day in prayer. How different we tend to see things in our busy culture.

For some Christian pioneers, prayer was the chief work of their lives. That too, seems out of reach, and counter-cultural. We pray, but do we really, really believe prayer makes that much of a difference? How often do we pray because it’s expected? And when we ask for things, how much faith do we have that it will make a difference? I, for one, have struggled with the last question more often than I care to admit.

That’s partly why I like the idea of communing with God. But if I truly trust Him, I can’t get away from petitioning and intercession, now can I? I don’t want my prayers to be functional though, as if prayer is a technique where I have to correctly insert a coin into the great slot machine in the sky.

In Foster’s view, “Real prayer is something we learn” (Foster, 36) over time, by doing it. As we pray, we get more tuned into God, and thereby find our prayers more often answered. But first, we must listen. Certainly verses like John 15:7 convey that God answers prayer: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” I’ve always liked John 15, though the challenge of that chapter is not to abide in order to get close to God as a task to get what we want, but to get to know God himself.

I grew up Pentecostal, so we prayed a lot, and definitely believed God answered prayers and moved among us. That might have carried more weight if the character of a number of people I knew lived up to their supposed prayer lives. Christians fail though, and ultimately, either what the Bible says about prayer is true or it’s not, and fortunately, there are always those Christians whose lives remind me why I believe.

Foster talks about prayer by using the imagination. Some detractors liken his description to astral projection or other Eastern religion practices. I’ll let others disect his methodology and just focus on my view of it. “Children also teach us the value of the imagination” (Foster, 41). As adults, we sometimes get too serious, too concrete. That’s not to say there isn’t a time to be serious, but there’s also a time to play and use our imaginations. I’ve used my imagination in prayer before, and it’s rather cool to form a picture of the person I’m praying for. Hey, if Peter, and Paul and John can see all the visions they saw (including the entire book of Revelation), and we are looking to the Bible for examples of how to pray, I’d say imagination has a place in prayer.

Foster also wrote a comprehensive book on prayer called Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home. Anyone know any other good books on prayer?

I’ve referenced Richard Foster and Celebration of Discpline before, and may talk about the Spiritual Discplines at some point. I was introduced to Foster at my Anabaptist college (who are very different from any variation of Baptist), so perhaps I didn’t realize just how many people really don’t agree with him.

I came across a very Baptistic website who counters all things emergent and contemplative at http://apprising.org/. It seems to come from a perspective that God only speaks through Scripture and there are no modern charasmatic gifts and such. Uses the word heresy a lot. His logic isn’t as good as he thinks it is, but he does raise some good questions. So, before discussing Celebration of Discipline, I thought I’d reference the opposing viewpoint.

There are a lot of people in the Christian tradition over the last 2000 years who have practiced what Foster calls The Spiritual Disciplines. Some would say that some of these have weak Biblical support, or none directly. The inward disciplines are meditation, prayer, fasting, and study; the outward disciplines are simplicity, solitude, submission, and service; and the community disciplines are confession, worship, guidance, and celebration.

Now, whether Foster’s explanation of some of these is Biblical is one discussion, especially as to the importance of these means of grace, as they are called. On the surface though, it seems to me there’s sufficient mention of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study in the Bible for their practice to be Biblical in some fashion. Confessing to another person is Biblical, as is worship. The outward disciplines are not mentioned as commanded acts, though there is mention or modeling of each to a degree. So, if I continue this post series, I’ll refer to the Bible as the primary source.

It’s good to look at the Bible and ask how Biblical things are. We should question things. What confuses me is that a given conversative Christian may be quick to condemn a more liberal Christian for being unbiblical, but it less willing to be open to being called unbiblical themselves, as if the status quo of a given denomination must be defended at all costs, because everything else is heresy. Honestly, that kind of logic scares me.

Now, with over 200 varieties of Baptist, it’s hard to use that term to generalize, plus I know some awesome Baptists! But if we’re going to talk about extra-biblical practices, I’ve seen plenty in Baptist churches I’ve been too. Is wearing a suit or your Sunday best Biblical? Does the Bible say we can’t drink alcohol? Is Sunday School a Biblical command? Are we commanded to sing hymns? Is the pulpit commanded? Are pews commanded? Some would say that even some of the elements of modern church services have pagan foundations. Yet, what a pastor wears from a pulpit is a big deal to guys like John Macarthur. And in fairness, some people are too ready to condemn the so-called traditional church for things like these. And so it goes.

So, from the introducation to Celebration of Discipline, I find these encouraging words:

“The moment we feel we can succeed and attain victory over sin by the strength of our will alone is the moment we are worshipping the will. Isn’t it ironic that Paul looks at our most strenuous efforts in the spiritual walk and call them idolatry, will worship? Willpower will never succeed in dealing with the deeply ingrained habits of sin.”

I wrote the following on my personal blog after reading that: It dawned on me, recently, in simplicity, that if I don’t have a close relationship with God, born of time spent with Him in honesty and humility and joy, that I won’t serve Him very well, that I won’t be as holy as I could be, that I won’t be as loving as I could be. And so I’m intent on doing that, spending time with God for like an hour a day, for the purpose of, spending time with God, and letting Him do what He does, cause my efforts just don’t seem to amount to much, even my efforts to be good and be better. I’ve had times where I’ve felt close to God. Recently, I really haven’t, except for a few moments. And it’s all seemed more like work than joy. Maybe we have too much of an end in our religion. Maybe the means is all that matters. We throw the words “relationship with God” around, though our prayer lives show how much we mean those words. But prayer too, is too often focused on the end rather than the means.

I just came across this post by Traci Giles called: Why a Christian Imagination?
Here’s an excerpt:

Some might argue that to have a “Christian” imagination is to limit the creativity available to the mind. The imagination is a porthole to other worlds; it is a gift that allows one to frame their own reality. So what would one gain from having a Christian worldview? If the imagination is simply the “creative faculty of the mind” why do people feel the need to put an adjective in front of it? Why a “Christian” imagination?

The imagination is an integral part of who we are as created people. As Christians we believe that we were formed by a Creator, who brought us to life through His power and imagination. Our existence is a result of our Maker’s hand. Our life both in the present and into eternity is a gift given by God that enables us to experience living both for ourselves and for Him. Madeline L’Engle in her book Walking on Water, discusses this in reference to time. She says, “In kairos (time) we become what we are called to be as human beings, co-creators with God, touching on the wonder of creation. This calling should not be limited to artists—or saints—but it is a fearful calling”.

Now, the very fact she is quoting L’Engle is enough to make it quote-worthy:)
That said, I highly suggest you read the whole thing if you can, as she has some good insight.

Today we talked about art and the Bible. The following are verses we discussed:

Visual Art
Ex. 25:31-33 (representinng real objects)
Ex. 28:33 (creating pomegranates that are not the normal color)
2 Chr. 3:6 (art for beauty – see KJV)
2 Chr. 3:16-17 (free standing columns that serve no useful purpose, form of abstract art)
2 Chr. 4:3-5 (altar and molten sea)
Num. 21:6-8 and John 3:14-15 (brazen serpent, art used for religious purpose)

Poetry
2 Sam. 1:19-27 (secular ode)
2 Sam. 23:1-2 (David inspired by God, and he was a poet)

Music & Song
Exodus 15 (song of praise for deliverance)
1 Chr. 23:3-5 (4000 Levite musicians appointed to temple)
1 Chr. 15:16-22 (template music performed by professionals)
1 Chr. 25:1, 6-7 (David appoints musicians)
2 Chr. 29:24-29 (Hezekiah)
Numbers 21:27-30 (song of the well)
1 Sam. 16:14-23 (David and Saul)
1 Cor 14:26, Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16 (more informal and relational)

Drama
Ezek. 4:1-8 (Ezekial performs drama repeatedly)

Dance
Psalm 149:3
Psalm 150:4-5
Exodus 15:20
2 Sam. 6:14-16

Popular Culture
Acts 17:28 (references Greek Stoic poets)
1 Cor. 15:33 (reference to play Thais by Greek dramatist Menander)
Titus 1:12 (references Epimenides)