Book Review of God Against the gods, by Brian Godawa
I received a free advanced copy of The Imagination of God: Art, Creativity and Truth in the Bible, by Brian Godawa in exchange for a fair review of the book. In addition to enjoying the book, I found it of great value for its insights in the areas of art, image, words, creativity and imagination within the Bible , so I purchased a Kindle copy for my family library.
I have previously reviewed his book, God against the gods, and found the insights into the Ancient Near Eastern Worldview to be extraordinarily helpful, so I figured that this one would further my understanding of the Holy Bible in total. I believe that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible, God-breathed word, at least in its original autographs, and I had my eyes opened by God against the gods, so I was prepared for the next installment and I was delighted!!!
In this book, the take home messages for me were that in addition to keeping in mind the Ancient Near Eastern Worldview, and the fact that the Bible was written for us, not to us, it was clear that God’s truths would be communicated in a variety of literary genre, and further, it was vitally important that the literary genre, and its use in those times, be factored into interpretation, just as much as looking through the eyes of an Ancient Near East viewer. Biblical truths can also be communicated through works of art, music, songs and metaphors.
As I was preparing this review, I happened to open the book and the following text jumped off the page: “Images are concrete expressions of abstract ideas, the existential embodiment of the rational word. Images, whether they are stories, pictures, or music, are incarnations of ideas – words made flesh. Image is the personification of logic, the enfleshment of proposition.”
At a later point, I encountered this quote: “Rather than separating himself into the Christian enclave of ‘holy subculture,’ Paul and the other biblical writers interacted redemptively with their Jewish and pagan surroundings. They assimilated Jewish and pagan imagery into a Christian worldview and redefined it. They found points of connection and truth, and affirmed them. They also pointed out where Christianity was distinct and antithetical. But they interacted with the culture…So Christians today should expose themselves to and even participate in the music, movies and television of today with an eye toward the truth – within the media as well as without it.” To me, this is watching movies or plays, or reading books or listening to music or poetry, with the prayer for discernment of the truth and perhaps when necessary, even the opportunity to subvert the problem pieces to a more righteous purpose.
In commenting about some of the works of C.S. Lewis, Brian points out a key principle: “What Lewis had learned, and what I am learning at the outer limits of our engagement with Christian faith through reason alone, is good news: God is bigger than rationality, bigger than imagination and He is Lord of both.”
There is so much in here, that since I wanted to keep it on the shorter side, I’ll just include the following two quotes, with comments:
“The nature of narrative, parables, verbal imagery, metaphors, and stories of visions, miracles and dreams is precisely a literary art form and not a scientific or rationalistic discourse. Just because it is written in words does not negate its artistic nature and does not reduce it to logo-centricity. Both images and words are God’s ‘Word,’ or as we indicated earlier, God’s message.” The take home message here is that the Bible is a literary art form, and has so much to offer us in terms of understanding God’s truth and coming closer to Him, if only we would be open to the possibility.
Brian ends the main part of the book with the following quote: “Our God is a God of both Reason and Imagination, both word and image. The spiritual Logos became incarnate flesh, and embraced the artistry of imagination in his teaching because he knew that the imagination can bring us into contact with truth in a way that reason cannot and vice versa. So we too must embrace that paradigm if we wish to know Him fully and properly express his image in us. Amen.”
This book is a scholarly text that is highly readable and entertaining, something that I’ve come to expect from Brian Godawa. I highly recommend it!! Thanks Brian!
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