The "moral imagination"

   We don’t say much in our circles about the “moral imagination.”  “That power of ethical perception which strides beyond the barriers of private experience and momentary events” to give us a moral vision of all of life.  Edmund Burke among others have written about it.

   In our circles we tend to favor the theological or ethical proposition, and, to be sure, we must understand God and his ways and his will for us on that level.  But knowing "the Truth" and "the Good" on that level is not enough.  We must desire the true and the good as well if we are to follow them consistently.  This requires that our whole soul — mind, affections, will, and imagination — must be engaged.  Hence the need for a “moral imagination.”

   The Bible is written in the way it is in order to re-form us, not only intellectually, but on all the other levels as well — as total persons.  We can abstract systems of theology and ethical standards from the Bible (“Reformed” people are particularly fond of and adept at that), but doing so is only one step in the process of our re-formation in Christ.  Our notion of semper reformanda (“always being reformed”) should encompass the totality of the individual, and not simply of the institutional church.

   Such individual re-formation is not quickly done.  It is not simply a matter of “time in grade.”  It takes many years (if God grants them), diligent effort, and wide reading — first in the Bible (and not just our favorite bits, or the “theological sections”), but also in quality literature that takes us “beyond the barriers of private experience and momentary events.”

   (There is a post by Travis Prinzi on this topic on the Rabbit Room blog by you might like to look at.  It says its “Part 1” so if you’re interested you might want to check back to see if he writes more on the topic in the future.)