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Creativity in C. S. Lewis’s Perelandra

Lynne Baab • Thursday August 20 2020

Imagine that you are one of the first two humans created on a planet that is mostly ocean. God has given you floating islands made of mats of plants to live on. The islands are host to charming, companionable animals and a variety of trees with beautiful flowers and delicious fruit, and the surfaces of the islands shift and move with the waves of the ocean. God has shown you an island of fixed land and has invited you to visit that island during the day. The fixed island, God has told you, is forbidden at night.

The tempter comes to you....

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Creativity, imagination and Jesus’ relationships

Lynne Baab • Thursday August 13 2020

I have never before thought about the connection between imagination and equality in relationships. I love Cheryl Forbes’s insight about this: “Jesus’ relationships showed his imagination at work. A shepherd doesn’t favor his male sheep over his female sheep. Each is important him; he knows each by name and they know him.” [1]

In her book Imagination, she gives lots of concrete examples:

“Jesus reflected the same respect toward women and men. Mary and Martha, Mary Magdalene, the woman at the well, the woman taken in adultery, his own mother were all treated as individuals who matter as much as did Peter and...

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Creativity, imagination, Jesus, and prayer for people we love

Lynne Baab • Thursday August 6 2020

Sometimes when I’m praying for family members and friends, I try to think of one word to summarize what I long for in their lives. Recently one of my favorite words is “shalom,” with its broadest meaning – well being in every area of life. For several friends and family members, I find myself praying the word “joy.” For several friends who struggle with anxiety, I simply pray “peace.” For my intrepid granddaughter, when I feel anxious about her safety, I pray the word “protection.”

From my recent reading about Jesus and imagination in Cheryl Forbes’ book Imagination: Embracing a Theology of...

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Creativity, imagination and empathy

Lynne Baab • Friday July 31 2020

I have long believed that imagination is required for empathy. In order to enter into another person’s feelings and thoughts about their life, I have to be able to imagine someone else’s reality. Here’s the definition of empathy, from a communications textbook, that I use when I’m teaching listening skills:

“Empathy is the cognitive process of identifying with or vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. . . .When we empathize, we are attempting to understand and/or experience what another person understands and/or experiences.” [1]

Notice the verbs in that definition: identifying with, vicariously experiencing, understand, experience. Imagination plays a key...

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