"Catholics live in an enchanted world,
a world of statues and holy water, stained glass and votive candles,
saints and religious medals, rosary beads and holy pictures.
But these Catholic paraphernalia are mere hints
of a deeper and more pervasive religious sensibility
which inclines Catholics to see the Holy lurking in creation.
As Catholics, we find our houses and our world
haunted by a sense that the objects, events, and persons of daily life
are revelations of grace."
(Andrew Greeley, Catholic Imagination, p.1)
a world of statues and holy water, stained glass and votive candles,
saints and religious medals, rosary beads and holy pictures.
But these Catholic paraphernalia are mere hints
of a deeper and more pervasive religious sensibility
which inclines Catholics to see the Holy lurking in creation.
As Catholics, we find our houses and our world
haunted by a sense that the objects, events, and persons of daily life
are revelations of grace."
(Andrew Greeley, Catholic Imagination, p.1)
This first entry of this blog for teaching the Catholic Faith and Culture is foundational: it is about the Catholic Imagination which Andrew Greeley in the above quote says is a "pervasive religious sensibility" of being Catholic. Throughout this blog I will share about and reflect upon the meaning of this Catholic Imagination.
First, I realize that the term "imagination" is a tricky one. I looked up the word imagination and found these definitions:
- 1.The image-making power of the mind; the act of creating or reproducing ideally an object not previously perceived; the ability to create such images. "Imagination is one of the most advanced human faculties."
- 2. Particularly, construction of false images; fantasizing. "You think someone's been following you? That's just your imagination."
- 3.Creativity; resourcefulness. "His imagination makes him a valuable team member."
I and others who write about the Catholic Imagination are not using the term "imagination" in the second sense of this definition, i.e. as fiction or fantasy. Rather we mean the first and even the third meanings, i.e. imagination is the human faculty for "imaging reality" and it is a creative faculty.
1. Imagination and Reality
How we "image" (make mental pictures) of reality influences our experiences of reality. Our experiences of reality also influence our imagination.
Example: The concept of "Mother" will call up in our minds images of motherhood: our own mother, other mothers, mothers of the past, mothers of our time, the Madonna and child, "mother earth," etc. These images together will influence one’s expectations and experiences of motherhood.
Sometimes we are conscious of the images of motherhood or same other reality in our life and sometimes our images are not conscious to us. Perhaps one had a very bad or abusive mother. That may taint all other images of motherhood for that person. Perhaps the person is aware of this or it may be deeply embedded and unconscious in the person's soul.
I believe that quite often we live from our images of reality without thinking much about them. But imagination can (and must) be examined by reason or reflective thought and corrected and even healed. I’ll say more about that in a later entry.
As long as we live we are constantly "collecting" images of reality. Our images are being reinforced or refined. Our images can be good or faulty; but without the ability to image reality, how would we be able to picture reality in the first palce?
2. The Religious Imagination
It is asserted that a similar process occurs in our imaging of God and the relationships and "things" connected to God. This is the "religious imagination" which we could call a part of our entire imagination. Remember, we are not saying that God is imaginary (a fiction or fantasy; I said we are not using meaning #2 from our above definition).
Our images of God will also influence how we experience God in our lives. Many of our images of God were given to us before we could reason or think much about them (usually as children). Most of the images, again, are unconscious.
We can and we must think about our images of God and religious reality, to make sure they are true. This is why it is so important that the authentic Gospel and Church Tradition be proclaimed and taught to correct any misconceptions in our images of God. Imagine what kind of experience of God one would have had when the famous 18th century Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon called "Sinners in the hands of an angry God." In fact as he preached some people wept, and some even fainted! In Scripture, we can find instances of God’s anger, but the core revelation and image is that "God is love." (1 John 4:8) Which image is the basic or primary image of God? The answer to that "image" question is very important!
3. The Catholic Imagination
The Catholic religious imagination tends to use a wide range of created and human realities to image God and God-relationships, culminating of course in Christ Jesus, the Image of God (see Col. 1:15). Jesus is the fullness of God’s revelation, "the Word made flesh."
Thus, Catholics (but not exclusively Catholics) use water, bread, wine, light, oil, human persons and relationships, etc. to image God and relationship to God. But Catholics are Christians, and so we interpret our use of created things and human realities in light of the life, death, Resurrection, and giving of the Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus.
Other religious systems may make lavish use of creation in their worship, for example Hindus. But the difference is crucial: the Christian experience always interprets reality in the revelation of Christ Jesus.
More next week.
