By Virtue of Imagination

Authors

  • James D. and Evelyn Eaton Whitehead

Abstract

This essay explores the dynamic links between experiences of impasse—when a government or a congregation or relationship has become stuck and can neither go forward nor retreat—and the imagination as a pastoral resource. When the need for institutional change meets resistance, religious communities experience impasse. When individual transformation is sidetracked by fear, the desired growth through formation and supervision may be thwarted. The biblical resource of lamentation appears as the graceful practice that can rescue believers from impasse and a mood of resentment, opening them to a future they have yet to imagine.

Downloads

Issue

Volume 32 Virtues In Formation and Supervision - 2012

Section

ARTICLES

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

    1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

    1. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

    1. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).