Imagination

On Friday in class we were talking about the Eleusinian mysteries and Dr. Sexson said that the mysteries were “made sacred through the imagination.” I started thinking about what this really meant. In this particular context the imagination was used to induce awe and used a tool in religion. In religion imagination always plays a part. In Greek mythology imagination is what allowed the creation of all the Greek gods and the numerous stories about them. Also Christianity uses the imagination to create Christ, God and the stories that go along with them.

The human imagination is what sets us apart from other animals. It is one of the first tools we develop as children. Almost every child has an imaginary friend at one time or another. It allows us to get travel to other worlds in novels and allows us to imagine rock concerts we weren’t actually at. The imagination is an extremely powerful human ability.

We also talked about how the Greeks used to celebrate their defiance to their gods rather than their obedience. I am a christian and much of our time and worship is spent trying to model our lives after Christ and to be obedient in what he wants us to do. This new take on religion was intriguing to me. Why had the Greeks celebrated this other side of religion? I started to think about it and I decided that the gods often meddled directly in human affairs, and could pretty much make humans do their bidding. So, when a human was able to go against the gods and survive the wraith that probably followed it was a chance for celebration. The Greek gods were often doing things without regard to the humans themselves and instead caught up in their own battles with each other. This caused humans to get stuck in the cross fire and any resistance to this force that took away free will was good and a reason to celebrate.