The Arts in Imagination

The following is a guest post from Stephen Addcox, a PhD student in the English Department at UF. The Opus Project on Faith, Work and Culture launches in 15 days. Learn more here.

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Is there a difference between imaginary and imaginative?

Two weeks ago the Sunday morning class Houses, Gardens, and Children read an essay by Marilynne Robinson which suggested that imagination is a key component in how we relate to our communities. According to Robinson, “Community, at least community larger than the immediate family, consists very largely of imaginative love for people we do not know or whom we know very slightly.” A key question that developed during our discussion was precisely what to make of Robinson’s use of the word “imaginative” in this moment.

For many of us the idea of imagination or being imaginative often connotes a sense of childish pretense or fiction, and yet Robinson believes that imagination plays a vital role in our lived experience. An example of the kind of imaginative work that Robinson describes might be found in the story of the Good Samaritan, itself an imaginative fiction, in which the Samaritan takes compassion on the beaten traveler. Without knowing anything about him, the Samaritan loved in the same way that he would have wanted to be loved had their positions been reversed–that kind of love takes imagination. It isn’t imaginary; on the contrary, such love is as real as it gets.

In only a few weeks, on November 16, the Opus Project launch event will explore several areas of faith, work, and culture. Part of that exploration involves our consideration of and involvement with the arts. If imagination can impact how we enact love of neighbor, surely the arts, through which imagination is used to probe the depths of human experience, also speaks to us as Christians. As a way to begin our conversation on the arts, we will be offering a screening of the 2012 Academy Award winning animated short The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Afterward, I will be leading a discussion on what this story specifically, and imaginative creativity through the arts as a whole, contributes to our understanding of the role that Christians can play in the arts, not just as consumers but as creators.

We like to draw a line between the imaginative and the imaginary, but perhaps they are closer than we realize. Through the Opus Project, I hope that we can foster a community of artists who envision and enact a deep intertwining of their faith with creativity. Jesus himself told imaginative stories, and we can do the same.