Imagination, Self-awareness Creatives’ Tools For Theologising The Public

Creatives have been encouraged to adopt imagination and self-awareness as tools for theologizing the public.

Reverend Fathers William Orbih, Joachim Ozonze, and dancer and choreographer, Abigail Zimmern made this known to participants at the 2024 Church Life Africa (CLA) Conference held August 29 to 31, at the Catholic Secretariat in Abuja.

According to Fr Orbi, theology is faith seeking understanding, and as Catholics we are constantly trying to understand our faith by bringing it into play in our daily experiences in the world. However, Catholic creatives, who are much more intentional about creativity, are called to deploy their creative skills as natural avenues for theology. As such their imagination and self-awareness play huge roles in engaging the public in a discuss about their faith.

Through imagination, creatives create works which have become reference points for people, events and times in Christianity that otherwise would have remained abstract today. A good illustration, he noted, is Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’ painting. “The arrangement of the apostles in the painting as imagined by Da Vinci has become a reference for what the Last Supper was like.

“There is nothing inimical about imagination so long as God is concerned. Because God did not speak creation, first. He imagined creation (before speaking it). As human beings we are all creatives. We cannot avoid creating be it things or moments, because we are creatures of a creator, who created us and the world. So, imagination is mostly a good thing, and it is always through imagination that creatives, theologize,” said Fr Orbih.

On the other hand, self-awareness, Zimmern said, keeps creatives grounded, while helping them consciously deploy their creativity as channel for theologizing the public.
The choreographer and dancer said her ultimate goal is speak of her experience as a dancer from her faith as a Catholic. By viewing dance as a form of meditation and prayer, one transforms daily ballet exercises (repetitive moves) into daily prayer exercises; while performances – involving the dancer and the audience – become a dialogue of friendship between the two, as God becomes the audience.

To avoid the man’s tendency to perform to the crowd as opposed to selfless, honest praise to God, Zimmern advices thinking of performing for one’s audience as performing for God, and those moments of imperfections in our performances, the moments when our audiences are profoundly touched as when God is most present in our creativeness, and when He is most glorified in us.

Zimmern also proffered British writer and Christian apologist, C.S Lewis’ thoughts – “problem often arises when we shift from that we are supposed to be talking about, to how we talk about it,” as a means to caution creatives against prideful disposition.

Themed ‘Theology For Service Leadership’, the third edition of the CLA Conference convened 140 young Catholics from various states of Nigeria in Abuja, training them in a deeper understanding of their faith, and how to share that faith with others.