Discovering Joy with our Imagination with Malcolm Guite

How can we engage our imagination to perceive the ordinary imbued with the extraordinary?

All of reality is aflame with God’s loving presence, glimmering with meaning, beauty, and wisdom beneath the surface of our everyday.

In this episode of The Digital Examen, Jay Y. Kim welcomes author, poet, priest, and musician Dr. Malcolm Guite. Widely recognized as one of today’s greatest Christian poets, Guite shares how our imagination is not a creative extra, but a truth-telling faculty that helps us apprehend meaning in a world saturated with data yet hungry for substance.

Seamlessly connecting insights from Shakespeare and Seamus Heaney to John’s gospel and the life of Moses, Guite illustrates how poetry and story help us discover that reality shimmers with divine presence. By engaging our imagination with God, Guite notes that we can perceive “reality [as] itself numinous, translucent with glimmerings of the supernatural.” Together, Kim and Guite explore how imagination makes biblical truth come alive, how metaphors and parables reveal vivid wisdom, and why community is essential for nurturing and expanding the Christian imagination.

Listen and be inspired to see your life, faith, and surroundings in a new light—and the world as the handiwork of the greatest poet, God.

This episode highlights the following themes:

Why imagination is crucial for perceiving meaning, not just informationHow metaphor and poetry bring spiritual truths down to earthThe role of community in expanding and renewing Christian imaginationLinks from this episode:

Learn more about Dr. Malcolm GuiteRead Dr. Malcolm Guite’s books, Mariner, Sounding the Seasons and Faith, Hope and PoetryRead "Digging" by Seamus HeaneyRead the transcript herePreorder The Pace of Peace by Jay Y. Kim

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