The Use and Abuse of Fiction

Michael explains the popular dismissal of fiction and the imagination, and explores the edifying uses of fiction for overcoming the limitations of one’s own lived experience and to bypass our natural resistance to the truth. LINKS “Are Sermons Enough to Preach the Whole Counsel of God?” (Part 1 (https://renewthearts.org/are-sermons-enough-to-preach-the-whole-counsel-of-god-part-1-of-2/) and Part 2 (https://renewthearts.org/are-sermons-enough-to-preach-the-whole-counsel-of-god-part-2-of-2/)) “If You Don’t Get Poetry, You Don’t Get the Bible” Ep. 58: Art and the Evangelical Imagination (with Karen Swallow Prior) (https://renewthearts.org/podcast/art-and-the-evangelical-imagination-with-karen-swallow-prior/) The Red Badge of Courage (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Badge_of_Courage), by Stephen Crane “Sonny’s Blues,” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny%27s_Blues) by James Baldwin Crime and Punishment (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_and_Punishment), by Fyodor Dostoevsky 1984 and Brave New World Compared (https://kudzureviewfsu.com/2024/04/25/fiction-in-tandem-why-1984-and-brave-new-world-should-always-be-read-together/) Demons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demons_(Dostoevsky_novel)), by Fyodor Dostoevsky