A new reformation/rediscovery of Divine imagination - christians as the artistically expressive community of the book...

Do you read the bible? If you do, how do you read it - in the way you've always done or in a variety of ways/settings?  What pose do you strike - disecting? fact finding? evidence to support a case? evaluating? flirting? exploring? rose tinted wish it was like that today glasses? How often do I let the bible read me? 

I think i am changing from a book that i have to read and analyse to a book that i can form a relationship with and that invites me to find different ways of both pursuing it and being pursued - that there is an active involved communal relation seeking God who is behind the words, revealed in the words and is breathes in and through them...

I also ask cos there is a small group of us trying to explore different ways of reading the bible, particualarly as a community of the book who wants to practice what we discover.  I am thinking about what I can lead our group into exploring and came across this great article about learning to read the bible again.   I found the following quote on recapturing the divine imaginagion of God in our bible reading one that really impacted me...

"...the good news in recognizing scriptural interpretation as an art is that reading scripture, like other forms of art, has the potential for creating something beautiful. Interpretations of scripture are not just right or wrong, although at times such categories are useful and necessary. A more adequate way of judging our readings might be the way we judge works of art -- according to the standards of beauty. To what extent do our readings reveal the intricacy, the wondrous quality of what the biblical writers call ma’asei Adonai, "the works of the LORD"? To what extent do they draw us toward something, a way of being that is -- to use Paul’s language -- more "lovely," more "gracious," more "excellent," "noble," "worthy of praise" (Phil. 4:8)?

Our readings will produce such beauty precisely to the extent that they respond faithfully to the antecedent imaginative power of God, to which the Bible bears witness. We normally say that God relates to us through God’s power of love, of compassion and so on -- and of course that is true. But if imagination is the capacity to envision the existence of something that does not yet exist -- the clearest instance of this being the artistic imagination -- then it makes sense to speak also of the divine imagination.

The creation of the world, the covenant between the Creator of heaven and earth and an old man named Abraham, the formation of a nation of priests out of a band of runaway slaves, the incarnation of the Godhead in human flesh, the destruction of death’s finality the inclusion of the gentiles in God’s covenant with Israel -- all these and more are remarkably imaginative acts on God’s part, acts through which God envisions and effects something totally new, totally unimaginable before it was brought into being. If we are faithful readers of the stories of these imaginative acts, we will find our own imaginations expanded and transformed. Thus scripture claims us and gradually forms us into a new people.

If reading scripture is an art, there follows one more conclusion: we learn the practice of an art through apprenticeship to those who have become masters. We come to read scripture imaginatively and well only by learning from those who have gone before us and performed, in their lives of embodied faithfulness, beautiful interpretations of scripture..."

I find this whole idea captures my imagination, not least because the last para in particular connects with some of my thoughts about deep church. 

Some qestions stirring in me...

How do you feel about reading the bible as an artistic expression?

If it is about us participating as communities caught up in the passionately creative imagination of God then how do you think we could...

• practice this together in our faith communities - what do you think it would look/feel like for you or even if you have experienced it?
• become not just students but artists, not just readers but creators?
• become creative/imaginative change agents rather than agents of preservation?

And who for you:

• is a master artist who inspires you and fires your creative God connecting life transforming imagination?

Comments

[steven hamilton]

how do i feel about reading the Bible as an artistic expression?? i love it. in a way, all such ancient writings (but particularly with our scriptures - which are full of divine fingerprints in human expressions) our scriptures call forth from us to use our craft and imagination to enter into what they speak of. i love what abarham heschel says about this: 'Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge.' i would adjust it a little because i think wonder provokes doubts which them in awe and wonder pursues new perspectives and knowledge and understanding. almost every time i read from our scriptures i am confronted with something that calls us forth into a new creation!!

great blog paul

[Molly]

Ooh, good stuff.

As for your questions...er...don't know. :) That's as good as I got, at the moment.

[Paul]

thanks Steve, i love how God inspires our imagination and calls to us through the ongoing creative act of me becoming a new creation as much as the unfolding story of the rest of creation. I'm trying to think of ways to let that flow in a community setting - any thoughts?

[Paul]

Thanks Molls, you got a lot on your plate, so that's mucho appreciated!

[Marcia]

How do you feel about reading the bible as an artistic expression?

Eh, not so much. I'm too dry and analytical; I have an appreciation for facts, not art.

Well, you asked. : )

[Paul]

thanks Marcia, i think we need facts too - there's no point in letting our imaginations run wild we need people who can challenge us, steer us, help us set the scene and understand - i very much think we need both left and right brained people to do this together as community. What do you think?

[fernando]

I been drafting a longer post for some time on culturally constitutive Christianity and this post has helped me think through a few thing in more detail. Thanks!

FWIW, I hold tradition and creativity in constant tension - I think a lot of musicians, especially jazz musicians do that. The tradition shapes me and in turn I hope to shape it; that sort of thing.

I think that is relevant to reading the Bible creatively, because the sense that we have this work thorugh the preservation of the saints (and the work of the Spirit) is a powerful insight. The history of interpretation might not be normative for us, but it probably should still guide us, at least at the level of respect and seriousness in attention.

[becky]

I have always prayed to BE creative and never felt that way....still reading this gave me such HOPE...He in reading the bible is just blowing everything I think away....maybe someday I will BE creative....thanks for the hope....a way of looking for and praying about it...

[Paul]

Thanks Becky. I hope you find your creative voice and expression. I'm curious in what way do you hope to be creative? I found these thoughts exciting about my own imagination being inspired and infilled with God's, which gives me hope. In what way(s) did they give you hope?

[Paul]

Thanks Fernando, i look forward to reading your post.

I like what you say about creative intention, in some way that feels to me that although the tune maybe my own it still uses the notes of the past but is also informed and inspired by music i have heard before and seek to intergrate and expand on. Is this what you were thinking or something else?

[fernando]

Paul - you've got it.