Practice
Becoming by Beholding The Power of the Imagination in Spiritual Formation Lanta Davis
Becoming by Beholding restores the imagination to its central role in spiritual formation by recovering key works from the Christian tradition, enabling us to experience the formative power of the imagination for ourselves. It also revives “the art of fashioning the soul” as an essential aspect of Christian spiritual formation and character development. Lanta Davis explains that many of the problems at the heart of the Christian church today—such as nationalism, consumerism, and partisan politics—stem from a crisis of the imagination. She encourages us to reorient our gaze from diseased cultural forms and fix our eyes instead on works from the historic Christian imagi - native tradition that better reflect the love, joy, and wonder of the gospel. Each chapter introduces a different work of the Chris- tian imagination: icons, sacred architecture, imaginative prayer, bestiaries, and personifications of the virtues and vices. The book also includes a twenty-page insert featuring numerous full-color images. “Davis’s engaging tour draws deeply from the Christian tradition of spiritual masters to show how the architecture of Chartres Cathe- dral, iconic imagery of Jesus, Station Island’s stations of the cross, and the literary genius of Dante teem with spiritual insights that reveal Christ and his life in us.” —REBECCA KONYNDYK DeYOUNG, Calvin University; author of Glittering Vices CONTENTS Introduction: The Art of Fashioning the Soul PART 1: ORTHODOXY: FORMING RIGHT BELIEF 1. Who Is Jesus, and How Does He Save Us? The Strange and Beautiful Face of Jesus in Icons 2. What Is Creation, and What Is Our Place in It? Webs of Wonder in Bestiaries PART 2: ORTHOPRAXY: FORMING RIGHT PRACTICE 3. How Should We Worship? A Geography for the Soul: A Tour of Chartres Cathedral 4. How Should We Read Scripture? Entering the World of the Word with Ignatian Prayer PART 3: ORTHOPATHY: FORMING MORAL CHARACTER 5. How Do We Avoid Evil? Dante’s Mirror for the Soul: Unveiling the Ugliness of Sin 6. How Do We Become Good? The Art of Virtue: Imitating the Lady Virtues Conclusion
JULY 2024 • 240 pp. • paper • $27.99 • 9781540966186
Lanta Davis (PhD, Baylor University) is associate professor of humanities and literature in the John Wesley Honors College at Indiana Wesleyan University. She was named the IWU Outstanding Scholar of the Year for 2020 and was a Fulbright Scholar at Queen’s University, Belfast. Her work on the Christian imagination and formation has appeared in the Christian Century and Christ and Pop Culture.
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