Now I See!

Growing up Baptist means, among other things, that the spirituality I learned contained very little art, poetry, symbolism, beauty, metaphor, or imagery. Spirituality (and Christianity really) was concrete, logical, clear, disciplined, and systematic. This brand of faith is common among evangelicals.

However, in there very little resonance for this kind of Christianity in the history of the church. Even in the scholastic period when theology and biblical studies were at their driest and most obtuse, imagery and metaphor played a major role in the church.

Not only this, but scripture is replete with this sort of thing. Jewish spirituality was almost entirely done in image, metaphor, and symbolic reenactment. Poetry and beauty mark not only the poetic books of the Bible, but find their way onto virtually every page. Imagery and metaphor were the standard tools of not only the prophets, but of Christ himself. Even Paul, the great theologian and logician, provides us with rich imagery and metaphor.

This weekend I attended a conference that developed the image of shepherding, Christ our Good Shepherd, we as under-shepherds ourselves, and we who help develop a future generation of shepherds. This is one of my favorite scriptural word pictures. The richness of it is astounding. Imagery and metaphor can capture our hearts and minds like little else.

How have you experienced (or not experienced) art, imagery, metaphor, symbolic reenactment, and other non-logic-based things in your spirituality? What are your favorite metaphors and images from scripture?