176. How Can Christians Plant An ‘Oasis of Imagination’? | with Ted Turnau

Our great and creative God has called every person to create stuff using his stuff. But as we know, many Christian leaders and churches have gotten busy or really ignorant. They don’t heed our sovereign Creator’s call to lead a rich imaginative life for the common good in our world. How can we cultivate this vital mission? Ted Turnau, author of Popologetics and coauthor of The Pop Culture Parent (with Stephen), has a new big book out: Oasis of Imagination: Engaging our World Through a Better Creativity, and a shorter companion, Imagination Manifesto: A Call to Plant Oases of Imagination! Ted now makes his Lorehaven debut to help our creative gardens flourish. Subscribe to Lorehaven middle grade • teens + YA • adults • onscreen • author resources • gifts • guild Episode sponsors Enclave Publishing: Savage Bred by Victoria McCombs The Pop Culture Parent by Ted Turnau, E. Stephen Burnett, and Dr. Jared Moore Michelle M. Bruhn: Songflight and Stormdance Introducing guest Ted Turnau Ted Turnau is Chair of Literature and Culture at Anglo-American University, Prague, Czech Republic, where he also teaches on popular culture, the media, religion and social theory. He is the author of Popologetics: Popular Culture in Christian Perspective (P&R, 2012), The Pop Culture Parent: Helping Kids Engage Their World for Christ, with co-authors E. Stephen Burnett and Jared Moore (New Growth Press, 2020), and Oasis of Imagination: Engaging our World Through a Better Creativity (IVP, 2023). He speaks widely on popular culture, the media and Christian cultural engagement. He and his wife Carolyn have three adult children, three cats and a rabbit. 1. Engage our world as a God-worshiping individual Popologetics part 1: Popular culture is full of religious worldview ideas. Popologetics part 2: Christians have adopted many bad views of culture. Popologetics part 3: We’re called to read and respond to popular culture. 2. Engage our world as families and local churches TPCP chapters 1-5: We need biblical views of pop culture and parenting. TPCP chapters 6-7: Wise questions help us engage pop culture with kids. TPCP chapters 8-14: Engagement looks different as children grow older. 3. Engage our world as culture-making missionaries Oasis chapter 1: Human cultures matter, and may even last for eternity. Oasis chapter 2: “Culture war” tactics alone cannot serve our neighbors. Oasis chapter 3: “Withdrawal” strategies can ignore our gospel witness. Mission update New article: Should We Seek the Gospel ‘According To’ Popular Stories? Recent review: today’s top sponsor Savage Bred Subscribe free to get updates and join the Guild Our next book quest is for Kyle Robert Schultz’s The Beast of Talesend Com station Nick o’ the Wastes has a dim view of “intelligent” aliens (ep. 175): You’ve heard of the Great Filter. Now consider: the Dumb Filter. The only UFOs we see are the ones dumb enough to get caught. Also in the Guild, our Sherriff had a thought on episode length: Re the informal survey on episode length, I think it’s good to have an approximate length to shoot for, but feel free to throw in a few extended sessions when the topic is interesting and the ideas are flowing well. Like you said: Let the Spirit lead! Next on Fantastical Truth Alas! We must report that another back-to-school season has come upon us, and we Muggles haven’t gotten our letter to Hogwarts. But since the 1990s that infamous wizarding world has received plenty of Howlers, not just from concerned Christians but from zealous fans and even sexual activists. One recent podcast brewed all this into a bubbling cauldron of controversy: The Witch Trials of J. K. Rowling. Now our own staff writer Marian Jacobs, who’s crafting her own book about a biblical Christian worldview of fictional magic, appears in our studio to help teach defense against these dark arts.