We tend to think of reasoning as coming to us in the form of text or diagrams. Rarely do we consciously turn our attention to a Steve McQueen artwork or a Gucci design or a Pixar film to help us make major life decisions or solve problems. Works of the imagination like these, are typically seen as completely separate to the world of rational thinking. Yet, for our guest, Reverend Professor Alison Milbank, works of art do far more than simply entertain us or give us ‘feels’, they provide one of the most powerful, instinctive and effective forms of reasoning that we can use. They are not the alternative to our reasoning minds, but a crucial form of it. In this episode, Alison joins Fer's Director, Jen as they reflect on times in their lives when both high and low works of art across various forms have lifted them out of indecision, guided their thinking or shifted their worldview.
Following the thinking of CS Lewis and Marilynne Robinson, Alison speaks beautifully of the enchanted nature of reality and helps us to recognise that if this world is, as Robinson writes, made ‘of fire and light’ and not merely dead matter, then it becomes clear that our imaginations are an essential tool for navigating our way through all of life, not just a toy for momentarily escaping it. Alison traces the peculiar and misguided separation of Imagination from Reason in the Western worldview, and helps us to reunite two things that, for Christians in particular, were never meant to be separate.
‘Imagination blossoms in the intimacy of conversation in this podcast, and all the more so because that conversation is open to the widest of horizons. In the intelligent and warm meeting of minds that is recorded here, erudition combines with passion, and intellectual ambition is the friend of humble wonder. The case for the importance of the arts in living with the grain of a world of living creatures, not dead objects, and participating in it to the full, is here beautifully made’ - Rev. Prof. Ben Quash, Christianity & the Arts, King's College London
'That Which Carries' is the podcast of collaborating art producer, Fer. It is born out of our artworks and oftentimes becomes the overflow venue for the community of artists and performers, where we dive into deeper reflections on the works, their theologies and the social pains they are responding to.
Fer communicates Christian theology and worldview through contemporary artworks, cultural artefacts and new rituals to create fresh encounters with the faith for emerging generations. See ferproduction.com for more information on our projects.
Please contact Jen at [email protected] for media requests and further information.
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