Read in Conjunction With Tolkien's "On Fairy-Stories"
The Conversion of the Evangelical Imagination
I'm not a big fan of Fr. Greeley, but he can certainly tell a story (in the oral tradition: I make no comment on his literary contribution. My only experience of him is as a storyteller (and forgetting where the creed goes in the mass)). Here he is in the article that provoked the above essay, tongue, as they say, firmly in cheek: Relax, It's Only a Fairy Tale.
Just goes to reinforce what I've been saying for years: of course you can be helped to God through the imagination, because it is "an essential part of human nature". God comes to us on a human level. Hence the incarnation. Hence the sacraments. Hence the angels. We're very weak and bad at knowing him, and so he comes to us in a form we can touch, and taste, and see, and adore.
I'm not saying that Tolkien and Lewis are inspired in any special way-- they're not scripture-- but that the imagination is not a human weakness, but a human strength-- it helps bring us to God.
But then, that's why I'm a Catholic.
I'm not a big fan of Fr. Greeley, but he can certainly tell a story (in the oral tradition: I make no comment on his literary contribution. My only experience of him is as a storyteller (and forgetting where the creed goes in the mass)). Here he is in the article that provoked the above essay, tongue, as they say, firmly in cheek: Relax, It's Only a Fairy Tale.
Just goes to reinforce what I've been saying for years: of course you can be helped to God through the imagination, because it is "an essential part of human nature". God comes to us on a human level. Hence the incarnation. Hence the sacraments. Hence the angels. We're very weak and bad at knowing him, and so he comes to us in a form we can touch, and taste, and see, and adore.
I'm not saying that Tolkien and Lewis are inspired in any special way-- they're not scripture-- but that the imagination is not a human weakness, but a human strength-- it helps bring us to God.
But then, that's why I'm a Catholic.
5 Comments:
I usually like Internet Monk as an incisive commentator on the state of the SBC, but he often has strange flights into my style of polemic, viz. "evangelicals slip dangerously close to Catholic idolatry". I'm more wary of imaginative art, Narnia included, than of iconography, crucifixes, etc, and rightly so. If one reads it as a "baptism of the imagination" as CS Lewis called it, that's great, but others have already pointed out the theological difficulties of pressing the allegory. People who are well-trained, who know the iconic nature of revelation, the heirarchy of images by which God brings us to Him, are less prone to this delusion, but Evangelicals have no idea.
It is telling that Mr. Monk has no idea what the iconoclastic controversy is about. He says: "The risks of idolatry were never absent, but the rewards of a holy, and living, imagination are too rich to avoid. In eras of illiteracy and spiritual warfare, the church sought to appeal to and capture the imagination of those who heard the Gospel. Whether liturgy, cathedrals, musical compositions or great works of visual art- all were arrayed for the purpose of taking the loyalties of the imagination captive for Christ the Lord." The moment he accepts that some type of visual art incorporating humans is not idolatry, he has given up his case against the "vain paganism of the Catholick" and become an iconodule in denial - presuming he's not an Arian, a Judaizer, or a Musulman.
What are they teaching kids in school these days?
mr thompson
By
Anonymous, at 1:57 PM
I fail it! I didn't realize he was quoting Fr. Greeley. Mea culpa. The rest still stands.
mr thompson
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Mr. G. Z. T., at 2:03 PM
Where did Father Greeley put the Creed, might I ask?
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Caelius, at 2:39 PM
I agree with you, Geoff... I think you'd get something out of Tolkien, though, due to his (negative) attitude towards allegory.
Nick: True quote from the mass, post homily: "And now we pray as Jesus taught us to pray... but not yet, because we have to say the creed." Basically, he confused the Lord's Prayer with the Creed.
Patrick also claims that he heard him refer to the "lovely Gregorian chant choir, which deserves a place in Church tradition right next to Marty Haugen", but I have no memory thereof.
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Alice Teresa, at 7:24 PM
That is so cold...
Historical sidenote:
Preaching fell by the wayside in some parts of the Church before the 12th century, when there, at least, was a push in England to restore it (The Archbishop of Canterbury ordered that a homily was to be given at every Sunday celebration of the Mass, I think, but I'm honestly remembering from 5th grade). Thus, the Ordinary of the Mass at Sarum (11th century) gives direction concerning from where the Gospel should be read and then gives the Creed, making no provision for the Homily. Thus, Cranmer stuck the Creed before the Homily, probably in line with the prevalent custom of the English Church. Frankly, I think Anglicans should put it back there.
By
Caelius, at 2:05 PM
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