Reading the Bible imaginatively to steal ‘past watchful dragons’ of overfamiliarity

By Caleb | May 31, 2022

C S Lewis famously used fairy-stories to steal past what he called the “watchful dragons” of overfamiliarity with the Christian story. By approaching Christian stories of Jesus’ death and resurrection through the lens of fantasy in the Narnia books, he stripped them “of their stained-glass and Sunday School associations” so that they could be experienced with their true potency.

But how can we approach the Bible more directly to rediscover the power of the Biblical stories? I discuss just that on the Postmodern Realities podcast below and on the accompanying subscriber-only article on Equip.org.

This is an expanded version of material I first wrote on my newsletter Bigger on the Inside. If you are interested in more in this vein, sign up at www.biggerinside.co.uk.

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How (not) to be a leader: Boris Johnson and Partygate

By Caleb | March 3, 2022

I recently edited the new IVP book Powerful Leaders? When Church Leadership Goes Wrong and How to Prevent it by Marcus Honeysett. With various scandals and abuses being uncovered in the church, it’s important that Christians take stock. We need to repent of our failures, and work hard to ensure healthy, Christlike leadership cultures.

But the church doesn’t have a monopoly on bad leadership. The recent investigations into ‘Partygate’ seem to me to show how it’s easy for leaders to fall prey to ‘privilege creep’ without necessarily realising how far their expectations are from those of ordinary people.

Read What Should Christians Learn About Leadership from Boris Johnson’s ‘Partygate’? on the IVP Blog.

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