Shaping Imagination and Culture
|
john stonestreet
|
with
warren cole smith |
|
Happy birthday to two of the greatest storytellers of the 20th century.
Politics,
we like to say, is most often downstream from the rest of culture. I
say “most often,” because politics sometimes leads other aspects of
culture. But that’s rare. Most often, politics reflects the larger culture more than shapes it.
And
here’s another truth: [The ideas //that shape politics and culture] are
rarely advanced by argument. Rather, [the ideas //that matter most] are
advanced through our imaginations.
That’s
why Damon of Athens wrote more than 2,000 years ago: “Give me the songs
of a people, and I care not who writes its laws.” Songs touch the
imagination. So do stories. Musician and novelist Andrew Peterson said
it this way: “If you want someone to hear the truth, you should tell
them the truth. But if you want someone to LOVE the truth, you should
tell them a story.” * So do stories = So stories do touch imagination.
Today is the birthday of two great progenitors of ideas, who were Christians, and who understood the power of storytelling.
Madeline
L’Engle, born on Nov. 29, 1918 or 100 years ago today, is best known
for her children’s science-fantasy classic “A Wrinkle in Time.” In the
book, 13-year old Meg Murray and her brother, Charles Wallace, search
for their father, through time and space. Their quest, which involves
encounters with many supernatural guides, has been compared to the
longing () all humans have for a heavenly father.
That
similarity was no accident. Madeline L’Engle often described her
stories /as a way to illuminate spiritual matters. “Our truest response
to the irrationality of the world is to paint or sing or write,” she
said. “For only in such response do we find truth.” Stories, she
continued, “make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more
loving.”
To
be clear, some of Madeline L’Engle’s ideas stray from Christian
orthodoxy, and the recent film adaptation of “A Wrinkle in Time,” though
successful at the box office, was not faithful to the Christian ideas
of the book. In fact, I don’t recommend the movie. But for a book in the
tradition of great Christian fantasy writers like C.S. Lewis and
Charles Williams, it is hard to beat “A Wrinkle in Time.”
|