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Imagination Redeemed: Glorifying God with a Neglected Part of Your Mind
Your imagination matters.
Contrary to popular perception, it's not just for kids, artists, or fans of science fiction. Rather, the imagination is what bridges our thinking and feeling, allowing us to do everything from planning a weekend getaway to remembering what we ate for breakfast.
In Imagination Redeemed, Gene Veith and Matthew Ristuccia uncover the imagination's importance for Christians, helping us understand who God is, what his Word teaches, and how we should live in the world today. Here is a call to embrace this forgotten part of the mind as a gift from God designed to bolster faith, hope, and love in his people.
Contrary to popular perception, it's not just for kids, artists, or fans of science fiction. Rather, the imagination is what bridges our thinking and feeling, allowing us to do everything from planning a weekend getaway to remembering what we ate for breakfast.
In Imagination Redeemed, Gene Veith and Matthew Ristuccia uncover the imagination's importance for Christians, helping us understand who God is, what his Word teaches, and how we should live in the world today. Here is a call to embrace this forgotten part of the mind as a gift from God designed to bolster faith, hope, and love in his people.
176 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 2014
27 people are currently reading
213 people want to read
About the author
Gene Edward Veith Jr.
45 books185 followersGene Edward Veith Jr., is the Culture Editor of WORLD MAGAZINE. He was formerly Professor of English at Concordia University Wisconsin, where he has also served as Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences. He is the author of numerous books, including Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture, The Spirituality of the Cross: The Way of the First Evangelicals, and God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life.
Postmodern Times received a Christianity Today Book Award as one of the top 25 religious books of 1994. He was named Concordia's Adult Learning Teacher of the Year in 1993 and received the Faculty Laureate Award as outstanding faculty member in 1994. He was a Salvatori Fellow with the Heritage Foundation in 1994-1995 and is a Senior Fellow with the Capital Research Center. He was given the layman’s 2002 Robert D. Preus Award by the Association of Confessional Lutherans as “Confessional Lutheran of the Year.”
Dr. Veith was born in Oklahoma in 1951. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1973 and received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Kansas in 1979. He has taught at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and was a Visiting Professor at Wheaton College in Illinois. He was also a Visiting Lecturer at the Estonian Institute of Humanities in Tallinn, Estonia. He and his wife Jackquelyn have three grown children and live in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Postmodern Times received a Christianity Today Book Award as one of the top 25 religious books of 1994. He was named Concordia's Adult Learning Teacher of the Year in 1993 and received the Faculty Laureate Award as outstanding faculty member in 1994. He was a Salvatori Fellow with the Heritage Foundation in 1994-1995 and is a Senior Fellow with the Capital Research Center. He was given the layman’s 2002 Robert D. Preus Award by the Association of Confessional Lutherans as “Confessional Lutheran of the Year.”
Dr. Veith was born in Oklahoma in 1951. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1973 and received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Kansas in 1979. He has taught at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and was a Visiting Professor at Wheaton College in Illinois. He was also a Visiting Lecturer at the Estonian Institute of Humanities in Tallinn, Estonia. He and his wife Jackquelyn have three grown children and live in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
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March 26, 2024So many good insights into what the imagination is and how Christians should view it. The connections to the book of Ezekiel are so cool, and the fact that two authors wrote this book gives it a unique feel that I really enjoyed.
February 20, 2019
Intriguing topic! Especially the breakdown of 4 of Ezekiel’s visions. You just don’t come across that kind of content every day!
I found it helpful to think about our imaginations role in worry. And, how do we feed our imaginations with good things/the things of God!!? Good stuff to think about.
I found it helpful to think about our imaginations role in worry. And, how do we feed our imaginations with good things/the things of God!!? Good stuff to think about.
February 10, 2021
Really, truly, phenomenal. So digestible and moving. I felt my heart and mind thoroughly engaged as I read. This is possibly my favorite "Christian Living" book ever!
March 8, 2018
"The human imagination is where meaning is made, where a vision for life is set, where mind and heart and will converge. It is simultaneously the most strategic and the most forgotten part of the human soul when it comes to Christian discipleship."
As an English teacher, and as a Christian, I can give a hearty "Amen" to the quote above. I know firsthand that if you want someone to feel and think and act a certain way, the easiest way to capture his or her heart is with a good story—because once the imagination has been captured, the battle is won. I've often been disappointed at how many Christians either ignore or disparage the imagination, and this book reinforces some of the reasons why the imagination matters.
I was hoping to go higher than three stars on my rating since the topic is so important. However, I thought the chapters in the second half of the book were weaker compared to the first two, and I couldn't bring myself to agree with all of the exposition of the visions in Ezekiel. Some of it seemed to be a reach. I also would have liked to see more practical discussion about how to train and strengthen the imagination.
Nevertheless, if you've never really taken the time before to consider the role of the imagination in the Christian life, you should find plenty of ideas in this book to chew on!
As an English teacher, and as a Christian, I can give a hearty "Amen" to the quote above. I know firsthand that if you want someone to feel and think and act a certain way, the easiest way to capture his or her heart is with a good story—because once the imagination has been captured, the battle is won. I've often been disappointed at how many Christians either ignore or disparage the imagination, and this book reinforces some of the reasons why the imagination matters.
I was hoping to go higher than three stars on my rating since the topic is so important. However, I thought the chapters in the second half of the book were weaker compared to the first two, and I couldn't bring myself to agree with all of the exposition of the visions in Ezekiel. Some of it seemed to be a reach. I also would have liked to see more practical discussion about how to train and strengthen the imagination.
Nevertheless, if you've never really taken the time before to consider the role of the imagination in the Christian life, you should find plenty of ideas in this book to chew on!
June 10, 2025
"I know they'd never match my sweet imagination...."
Many Christians today find that the life described in the New Testament has little semblance to their own. They read of incredibly awesome things like “rivers of living water flowing from their innermost being” and “rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full for glory” and knowing “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (John 7:38, 1 Peter 1:8, Ephesians 3:19), but they have not known anything themselves that could be fairly described by these words. Authors Gene Veith and Matt Ristuccia chalk this up to a failure of imagination. According to them, the words of Jesus, Peter, Paul and the prophets are poetic metaphors that only come alive by and through the imagination. Christians must therefore hone their imaginations by reading the Bible more, going to church more, joining more bible studies, doing more service projects, and attending more potluck dinners. (pp. 113-116.)
It does not seem to have occurred to the authors that the words of Jesus and the Apostles and the Prophets were describing an objective spiritual reality that they themselves knew by experience; by direct contact with this reality. Yes, they used metaphors, in part because they were describing realities that, in themselves, were ineffable and unspeakable and surpassed knowledge, but the words were intended to stir a desire in the hearers to experience this objective reality for themselves, not to simply entertain poetic images in their minds.
The authors do not report having experienced any of these things themselves, so they reduce the meaning of these Scriptures to something they do know, i.e., their imaginations. Martyn Lloyd-Jones addressed a similar mindset in the book Joy Unspeakable: Power and Renewal in the Holy Spirit. He repeatedly pointed out the wide disparity between the Christian life as seen in the New Testament and the Christianity promoted and practiced by a large segment of the church today: "[W]e look at the new Testament church, we see this amazing life that was in it - this power, this joy, this abandon, this thrill, and we ask ourselves, 'Are we like that?' We then read the subsequent history of the church and ... [w]e see that there have been periods in the church like this present era when the church has been weak and lethargic and ineffective." (Joy Unspeakable at 199.) Lloyd-Jones attributed this sad state of affairs to church leaders who interpret the New Testament through the reductionist lens of their own limited experience and, consequently, "reduce everything to the ordinary." (Joy Unspeakable at 18, 74.)
The abundant life promised by Jesus is not obtained through the imagination. Jonathan Edwards, in describing the "divine and supernatural light" by which the Holy Spirit directly reveals to a believer the wondrous spiritual realities described in Scripture, expressly denied this was a work of the imagination: "[One] may be affected with a lively and eloquent description of many pleasant things that attend the state of the blessed in heaven, as well as his imagination be entertained by a romantic description of the pleasantness of fairy land, or the like. … We read in Scripture of many that were greatly affected with things of a religious nature, who yet are there represented as wholly graceless, and many of them very ill men. A person therefore may have affecting views of the things of religion, and yet be very destitute of spiritual light. Flesh and blood may be the author of this: one man may give another an affecting view of divine things with but common assistance: but God alone can give a spiritual discovery of them."
John Owen further observed that only those who have had this real encounter with the Holy Spirit are able to understand it: "And whereas this spiritual experience, which believers obtain through the Holy Ghost, is such as cannot rationally be contended about, seeing those who have received it cannot fully express it, and those who have not cannot understand it, nor the efficacy which it hath to secure and establish the mind, it is left to be determined on by them alone who have their 'senses exercised to discern good and evil.' And this belongs unto the internal subjective testimony of the Holy Ghost." Pneumatologia - Enhanced Version at 510.
Edwards and Owen were in accord that this illuminating work of the Holy Spirit is the only means by which a Christian can secure the benefits of union with Christ and its attendant spiritual fruit. Said Edwards: "This light, and this only, has its fruit in universal holiness of life. No merely notional or speculative understanding of the doctrines of religion will ever bring to this. But this light, as it reaches the bottom of the heart and changes the nature, so it will effectually dispose to a universal obedience." Owen likewise wrote that this direct illumination by the Holy Spirit has in it "a transforming power to change the whole soul into an obedient frame towards God" and "is the only means whereby we actually derive from Christ the benefits of our union with him." Pneumatologia at 242, 403.
No amount of imagining will ever produce the light and life and fruit that Edwards and Owen described. For those who desire the real abundant life, I highly recommend Edwards' sermon, The Divine and Supernatural Light (available free on the internet), and Owen's Pneumatologia.
Many Christians today find that the life described in the New Testament has little semblance to their own. They read of incredibly awesome things like “rivers of living water flowing from their innermost being” and “rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full for glory” and knowing “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (John 7:38, 1 Peter 1:8, Ephesians 3:19), but they have not known anything themselves that could be fairly described by these words. Authors Gene Veith and Matt Ristuccia chalk this up to a failure of imagination. According to them, the words of Jesus, Peter, Paul and the prophets are poetic metaphors that only come alive by and through the imagination. Christians must therefore hone their imaginations by reading the Bible more, going to church more, joining more bible studies, doing more service projects, and attending more potluck dinners. (pp. 113-116.)
It does not seem to have occurred to the authors that the words of Jesus and the Apostles and the Prophets were describing an objective spiritual reality that they themselves knew by experience; by direct contact with this reality. Yes, they used metaphors, in part because they were describing realities that, in themselves, were ineffable and unspeakable and surpassed knowledge, but the words were intended to stir a desire in the hearers to experience this objective reality for themselves, not to simply entertain poetic images in their minds.
The authors do not report having experienced any of these things themselves, so they reduce the meaning of these Scriptures to something they do know, i.e., their imaginations. Martyn Lloyd-Jones addressed a similar mindset in the book Joy Unspeakable: Power and Renewal in the Holy Spirit. He repeatedly pointed out the wide disparity between the Christian life as seen in the New Testament and the Christianity promoted and practiced by a large segment of the church today: "[W]e look at the new Testament church, we see this amazing life that was in it - this power, this joy, this abandon, this thrill, and we ask ourselves, 'Are we like that?' We then read the subsequent history of the church and ... [w]e see that there have been periods in the church like this present era when the church has been weak and lethargic and ineffective." (Joy Unspeakable at 199.) Lloyd-Jones attributed this sad state of affairs to church leaders who interpret the New Testament through the reductionist lens of their own limited experience and, consequently, "reduce everything to the ordinary." (Joy Unspeakable at 18, 74.)
The abundant life promised by Jesus is not obtained through the imagination. Jonathan Edwards, in describing the "divine and supernatural light" by which the Holy Spirit directly reveals to a believer the wondrous spiritual realities described in Scripture, expressly denied this was a work of the imagination: "[One] may be affected with a lively and eloquent description of many pleasant things that attend the state of the blessed in heaven, as well as his imagination be entertained by a romantic description of the pleasantness of fairy land, or the like. … We read in Scripture of many that were greatly affected with things of a religious nature, who yet are there represented as wholly graceless, and many of them very ill men. A person therefore may have affecting views of the things of religion, and yet be very destitute of spiritual light. Flesh and blood may be the author of this: one man may give another an affecting view of divine things with but common assistance: but God alone can give a spiritual discovery of them."
John Owen further observed that only those who have had this real encounter with the Holy Spirit are able to understand it: "And whereas this spiritual experience, which believers obtain through the Holy Ghost, is such as cannot rationally be contended about, seeing those who have received it cannot fully express it, and those who have not cannot understand it, nor the efficacy which it hath to secure and establish the mind, it is left to be determined on by them alone who have their 'senses exercised to discern good and evil.' And this belongs unto the internal subjective testimony of the Holy Ghost." Pneumatologia - Enhanced Version at 510.
Edwards and Owen were in accord that this illuminating work of the Holy Spirit is the only means by which a Christian can secure the benefits of union with Christ and its attendant spiritual fruit. Said Edwards: "This light, and this only, has its fruit in universal holiness of life. No merely notional or speculative understanding of the doctrines of religion will ever bring to this. But this light, as it reaches the bottom of the heart and changes the nature, so it will effectually dispose to a universal obedience." Owen likewise wrote that this direct illumination by the Holy Spirit has in it "a transforming power to change the whole soul into an obedient frame towards God" and "is the only means whereby we actually derive from Christ the benefits of our union with him." Pneumatologia at 242, 403.
No amount of imagining will ever produce the light and life and fruit that Edwards and Owen described. For those who desire the real abundant life, I highly recommend Edwards' sermon, The Divine and Supernatural Light (available free on the internet), and Owen's Pneumatologia.
January 11, 2025
Knowing that Gene Edward Veith Jr. is a professor of literature, I figured Imagination Redeemed would be a study of two things I love — literature and theology. I was surprised to find that it was that and so much more, though!
This book is a study of Ezekiel and his four “visions from God.” But don’t let that stop you! I know, had I known this ahead of time, I might not have started. Like so many, I’m afraid to study Ezekiel—hard to read and even harder to comprehend.
But Ristuccia and Veith have written a compelling book that connects the great prophet and his visions to a discussion of our 21st century imaginations.
They write: “We need Ezekiel … for divine renewal of that deepest part of our souls, what Christians have traditionally called ‘imagination.’”
Each chapter includes an analysis by Veith and then an Ezekiel exploration by Ristuccia. They close with prayer and a classic colloquy where they encourage applying the reading to life.
Bottom line? “A Christian imagination comes, above all, from reading the Bible continually, studying it, meditating on it, and just saturating your mind and your imagination with the word of God.”
Highly recommend this book. Read it with a friend and a handful of highlighters ;)
This book is a study of Ezekiel and his four “visions from God.” But don’t let that stop you! I know, had I known this ahead of time, I might not have started. Like so many, I’m afraid to study Ezekiel—hard to read and even harder to comprehend.
But Ristuccia and Veith have written a compelling book that connects the great prophet and his visions to a discussion of our 21st century imaginations.
They write: “We need Ezekiel … for divine renewal of that deepest part of our souls, what Christians have traditionally called ‘imagination.’”
Each chapter includes an analysis by Veith and then an Ezekiel exploration by Ristuccia. They close with prayer and a classic colloquy where they encourage applying the reading to life.
Bottom line? “A Christian imagination comes, above all, from reading the Bible continually, studying it, meditating on it, and just saturating your mind and your imagination with the word of God.”
Highly recommend this book. Read it with a friend and a handful of highlighters ;)
April 16, 2023
Wow. SO many nuggets of wisdom in this book.
The subtitle is "Glorifying God with a Neglected Part of Your Mind," and that pretty succinctly explains what this book is about. Veith and Ristuccia point out that Christians are often told not to use their imaginations. The imagination is often reviled as being untrustworthy, frivolous, unnecessary, or even an instrument of Satan. But, God gave every person an imagination, just like He gave them reason and taste buds and an appreciation for music or flowers or other beautiful things. That's the starting point for this book: imagination is a gift and can be used for good or evil, like everything else.
I have always cherished my imagination and sought to use it to God's glory, so this book mostly confirmed things I have thought or felt or believed, but it explains them so much better than I ever could. If you've ever been told to stop being imaginative, or been told that reading (or writing) fiction is a lesser use of time than nonfiction, or been told that imagining things is actually wrong, you might find this book comforting and revelatory.
The subtitle is "Glorifying God with a Neglected Part of Your Mind," and that pretty succinctly explains what this book is about. Veith and Ristuccia point out that Christians are often told not to use their imaginations. The imagination is often reviled as being untrustworthy, frivolous, unnecessary, or even an instrument of Satan. But, God gave every person an imagination, just like He gave them reason and taste buds and an appreciation for music or flowers or other beautiful things. That's the starting point for this book: imagination is a gift and can be used for good or evil, like everything else.
I have always cherished my imagination and sought to use it to God's glory, so this book mostly confirmed things I have thought or felt or believed, but it explains them so much better than I ever could. If you've ever been told to stop being imaginative, or been told that reading (or writing) fiction is a lesser use of time than nonfiction, or been told that imagining things is actually wrong, you might find this book comforting and revelatory.
August 11, 2017
This book has tremendous implications for awakening ones imagination to reality through God's truth.
Aww struck captivating! I loved the explanation and journey through Ezekiel as he described the journey of entering into your imagination in the Biblical text.
Aww struck captivating! I loved the explanation and journey through Ezekiel as he described the journey of entering into your imagination in the Biblical text.
July 24, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! After reading the book of Ezekiel earlier this year with She Reads Truth, I loved that the authors connected a redeemed imagination with Scripture and especially the visions in Ezekiel. I enjoyed hearing from two different authors!
February 24, 2025
The division between Veith's and Ristuccia's contributions unfortunately feels a little disjointed. I preferred Veith's.
It gets better as it goes along - the final chapter and the conclusion are spectacular.
It gets better as it goes along - the final chapter and the conclusion are spectacular.
August 12, 2022
Admittedly, some of this was hard for me to grasp - perhaps a little too scholarly in places. Yet, I found myself highlighting a lot as much of the book really resonated with me.
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November 15, 2020I loved this book. Short, insightful, stimulating. It has inspired all sorts of desires for further reading and writing.
Veith & Ristuccia argue that the imagination is a largely neglected sphere of Christian spirituality, but is one of the most powerful capacities granted to God's image-bearers. Our imagination—our inner thoughts consisting of images, memories, fantasies, aspirations—cannot be ignored and will inevitably be cultivated, either by the our flesh or by the Spirit.
After the introductory chapter, the book is structured around the four imaginative visions of Ezekiel. In each chapter, literature professor Gene Edward Veith Jr. opens with a survey of the role imagination plays in life, literature, philosophy along the given topic (ch. 2, God; ch. 3, evil; ch. 4, the future; ch. 5, the community of grace.) Then Matthew P. Ristuccia, a New Jersey pastor, illustrates this principle through one of the four visions given to Ezekiel in the Babylonian exile. Each chapter concludes with a final "colloquy" where the two authors conspire to set forth a pastoral application for cultivating the imagination in the Christian life.
The portions by Gene were very interesting and thought-provoking. The expositions of Ezekiel by Matt recaptured my imagination, and grew my desire to spend more time in the Word of God. And the pastoral applications were challenging and hopeful.
Highly recommend! (Only 150 pages!)
Veith & Ristuccia argue that the imagination is a largely neglected sphere of Christian spirituality, but is one of the most powerful capacities granted to God's image-bearers. Our imagination—our inner thoughts consisting of images, memories, fantasies, aspirations—cannot be ignored and will inevitably be cultivated, either by the our flesh or by the Spirit.
After the introductory chapter, the book is structured around the four imaginative visions of Ezekiel. In each chapter, literature professor Gene Edward Veith Jr. opens with a survey of the role imagination plays in life, literature, philosophy along the given topic (ch. 2, God; ch. 3, evil; ch. 4, the future; ch. 5, the community of grace.) Then Matthew P. Ristuccia, a New Jersey pastor, illustrates this principle through one of the four visions given to Ezekiel in the Babylonian exile. Each chapter concludes with a final "colloquy" where the two authors conspire to set forth a pastoral application for cultivating the imagination in the Christian life.
The portions by Gene were very interesting and thought-provoking. The expositions of Ezekiel by Matt recaptured my imagination, and grew my desire to spend more time in the Word of God. And the pastoral applications were challenging and hopeful.
Highly recommend! (Only 150 pages!)
December 14, 2014
This book has a much-needed message to Christians and churches who are turning inward at the onslaught of an increasingly secular culture and seem to only watch, listen to or read so-called Chrisitian artists. Like Veith and Ristuccia, my imagination was captured by the likes of C.S. Lewis and others who were able to express God's beauty and His Gospel through the written word and other means.
My problem with this book is the handling of the book of Ezekiel and especially chapters 40-48. I believe their imagination gets the best of them - although I realize that their theological backgrounds inform them with a particular interpretation. They see the new temple and the river running from it as entirely symbolic. Ristuccia acknowledges in a footnote that there are other interpretations. I doubt very seriously the idea that the river represents the flowing forth of the Gospel and the love of God when the New Testament is full of very direct exhortations to us about love and spreading the Gospel.
At any rate, I always appreciate Gene Edward Veith's writings and he does not disappoint.
My problem with this book is the handling of the book of Ezekiel and especially chapters 40-48. I believe their imagination gets the best of them - although I realize that their theological backgrounds inform them with a particular interpretation. They see the new temple and the river running from it as entirely symbolic. Ristuccia acknowledges in a footnote that there are other interpretations. I doubt very seriously the idea that the river represents the flowing forth of the Gospel and the love of God when the New Testament is full of very direct exhortations to us about love and spreading the Gospel.
At any rate, I always appreciate Gene Edward Veith's writings and he does not disappoint.
February 20, 2016
I was really looking forward to this book. After all, it's Dr. Veith on the imagination--what more could you want? The actual result, however, was disappointing. While there were some really good lines and small sections, the book as a whole had an unclear goal and structure. I didn't feel like they ever fully or satisfactorily defined what the imagination fundamentally is, and a lot of their reflections on it seemed rather haphazard and random. As a result, while there were some good parts, such as the importance of controlling and directing our imagination, the book as a whole didn't lend much to my understanding of the imagination. A disappointing read from a normally-great writer.
Rating: 2.0 Stars (Inconsistent).
Rating: 2.0 Stars (Inconsistent).
March 6, 2017
It’s a great book! I’d recommend it to anyone. It’ll strengthen your understanding of the human mind and reveal just how much you use your imagination. The book is a blessing. It lays out the uses and powers of imagination and provides exercises that readers can do to strengthen their Christian imagination. What’s more, not only does this little yellow jewel deliver the goods on an intriguing topic, it doubles as a study resource for the book of Ezekiel.
April 29, 2015
I enjoyed this. As a writer, it was really interesting to read about how to mold my imagination (and consequently my stories) to be God-honoring. They take a look at the book of Ezekiel in the Bible specifically, and the visions Ezekiel has, and they go through how to develop and maintain a healthy imagination and how to avoid a negative one. An excellent read for people who use the imagination a lot (writers, artists, actors, etc.).
June 26, 2015
This book had some good nuggets to mull over, especially in relation to sanctification of the imagination. But, I constantly was left feeling that there is more that needs to be said. There were also some aspects of the writing that I found annoying i.e.. at points the dual authors seemed to be joking back and forth with each other.
March 11, 2016
The challenge of our mind's use continues to be the #1 go to place for creativity or for sin in most believers as we continue our walk with Messiah. Gene and Matt make this a very interesting journey with reminders (and isn't that itself a great word) of biblical scenes and sensible thinking which help us well 'think on these things.' A very good read.
December 7, 2015
It got better in the second half, the first half being a bit basic of an introduction to what the imagination even is.
To be completed...
To be completed...
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