By now, we’ve all heard plenty about Mel Gibson’s The Passion of The Christ. Some of you have probably already seen it. Churches are organizing groups for post-film discussions, which is a great idea. But I think we’d do better with the wider world if we knew how to “bookend” these Passion conversations with a second, more imaginative film — J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. The fact that we organize ticket-selling drives for The Passion — and didn’t for The Lord of the Rings — might tell us something about how we’ve forgotten the role of the arts and imagination in the Christian story.
For most of us, the idea of being made in the image of God holds little meaning. Yet, for much of history, the imago dei meant that humankind has the capacity for more than analytical reason; we also have imagination. Even so, most of us value our rational capabilities more than imagination. Louise Cowan thinks this is a grave error. She writes: “This may seem radical to you, but I think we believe that our rationalization is the source of truth. I don’t believe it. C.S. Lewis said that the brain is the organ of truth, but imagination is the organ of reality.” Translation? Reason gives us truth, but imagination gives us meaning. As Lewis saw it, imagination is a precursor to truth. It enables truth to be meaning-full. This is why Lendor Calder says, “Spiritual awakening will not occur when Christian doctrines are better defended; rather, it will occur when holy imaginations make the Christian story more likely to be appreciated.”
C.S. Lewis understood this as well as anyone. He was part of a group of writers known as the “Theologians of Romanticism.” They met regularly on Tuesdays at a pub called The Eagle and the Child, enjoying an ongoing conversation that included J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Williams. Also dubbed The Inklings, they all believed that reason and imagination have distinct roles: reason has to do with theoretical or conceptual truths; imagination has to do with the very conditions of truth. In other words, imagination precedes reason. As I said earlier, imagination makes truth reason-able or meaning-full. For Lewis, this meant that good fantasy literature and art has the power to “steal past” the religious associations and demands that destroy one’s ability to feel the truth of the Christian revelation as we should. “[B]y casting aside these things in an imaginative world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday school associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their potency,” wrote Lewis. The writer could then, according to Lewis, “steal past those watchful dragons” to communicate with the wider world.
Because The Passion of The Christ is a realistic (but religious and historical) film, Mel Gibson has had difficulty stealing past those “watchful dragons”, as Lewis predicted. It’s still an excellent movie — not a poor second to Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. But I do think evangelicals need to bookend this film with more imaginative literature, art, and movies that would make the gospel and the passion of Christ more meaningful in a “whatever” world of competing stories.
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