Jan 30, 2025
About the Author
Introducing: Ministry of Imagination - biblical imagination in Christian spiritual formation
Hello,
Imagination is of triple interest to me. I’m Andy Maitland, a practicing artist in the UK who has worked with companies such as Apple, the London Symphony Orchestra, the V&A and I’m a spiritual director in the Christian tradition, trained back in 2002/3/6 with Dr. Larry Crabb in the US. I’m also an author. Of course this is what I do, not who I am and there is more about me as a person a little later and much more interwoven throughout the pages of this Ministry of Imagination Jounal. Maybe it’s time I admitted that these words (and pictures) here aren't meant for those living in the fast lane of the attention economy, but for those easing their pace, or for those who by choice or circumstance are being pulled aside, to take in the real world - imaginatively.
What is the Ministry of Imagination? Art and God have long been dual passions for humans who discover life through imagination: this was my genesis for the Ministry of Imagination, born and named in early 2025, perhaps gestating unseen for some time. Faith, hope and prophecy all require imagination. Here I connect with people in conversations, I write about the Trinity, art, life and imagination. As I mentioned, I’m an artist, author and spiritual director.
As a spiritual director I believe “imagination’s truest purpose is not invention, but revelation”¹ and humans were made to be filled with nothing less than God Himself. The point is not imagination. I like how Garret Green puts it:
"Imagination, properly understood as the name of a basic human ability, one of the things that people do in the course of living in, acting on, and thinking about the world identifies that specific point where, according to Christian belief and experience, the Word of God becomes effective in human lives. More formally: imagination is the anthropological point of contact for divine revelation. It is not the "foundation," the "ground," the "preunderstanding," or the "ontological basis" for revelation; it is simply the place where it happens, better, the way in which it happens."
Garret Green, Imagining God: Theology and the Religious Imagination, 1998.
As a spiritual director, through informal video conversations, I accompany new and seasoned believers as they recognise and respond to the Spirit of God in their own lives. The same Spirit who transforms us both. Read on to learn about my practice and to consider starting a conversation - here.
As an artist not everything imagined is imaginary. In my latest work, a publication of abstraction iPad drawings, I learned to meaningfully imagine during the pandemic.
I’m the author of The Digital Garden® and An Imagined Garden One, both of which explore the garden and space as a place where perception, creativity, and awareness meet.
I really like Anatole Frances’ ten word celebration of imagination, which in my mind hints back to the purpose of imagination, which is to receive reality:
"To know is nothing at all, to imagine is everything."
Anatole France, poet, journalist and novelist.
I also write here and on Substack, on spiritual direction, exploring attention, imagination and being human.
Imagination in Christian formation. Connect in a conversation exploring how we might respond to the Spirit and His leading in our lives. How do we encourage one another to look more deeply, beyond appearances, beyond even our sense of self, further than a satisfaction of meaningful service, past our failures while honouring successes, and toward a life shaped by the Spirit? Specifically with “Who am I becoming?" "What kind of transformation am I seeking?" and "What vision of the Christian life am I choosing to pursue?" Expect our assumptions to be gently unsettled. And along the way, there’ll be deep thinking, imagination and art, with a touch of levity too.
I’ll be exploring these thoughts here, amidst the Ministry of Imagination.
Welcome to the conversation.
-Andy.