Marcel Măcelaru on Mission and the Christian Imagination

Biblical and Practical Examples

An INFEMIT community conversation

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Conversation Excerpt

Marcel: Now, imagination is a very dangerous word. And I’m saying that, because it’s not been two months (maybe 1.5 months) since I’ve been, let’s say, “admonished” and “criticized” for the fact that I believe a Christian should have imagination.

So, one of my colleagues and friends, an established theologian in Romania, he felt that it was necessary to warn me that imagination is a dangerous thing. We don’t need imagination – we have everything written down for sure in the Bible. Therefore, anything else that comes besides the Bible would be “sinful” and “wrong.”

Now, my friend didn’t understand that when we speak about Christian imagination, we don’t speak about wishful thinking, nor do we speak about any other kind of imaginary realities or situations. I think when we speak about Christian imagination, at least in my case, I use that phrase as a replacement for the word “faith,” and I understand it in the way the Bible describes faith as living in the here-and-now according to the promises of God of the future that is to come, or the fulfillment of God’s kingdom that is to come. And basically, the Bible calls us (the prophetic books, the psalms, the gospels, basically everywhere in the Bible where we look) the Bible is calling us to imagine an alternative – and not any alternative, but God’s alternative for the world in which we live. And that is not wishful thinking. That is an alternative that is more sure than whatever we call reality here and now, because it is based on God’s promise and based on God’s plan, and God is already at work in bringing this about.

I love the fact that the Bible finishes with Jesus sitting on the throne, declaring (and he claims to be the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, there is nothing before or after him) he declares that he is making all things new. And the word there is in present tense. Meaning: Jesus is at work to bring about things that we can only perceive through imagination.

Therefore, when we speak about Christian imagination, we really speak about that kind of faith that puts the whole trust in God and expects, really expects in active ways to see that Kingdom come about.

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