I was looking for some information about Ron Hansen, one of my favorite writers, and I ran across an interview he did several years ago. I was struck by this comment.
The analogical imagination sees God within the world and somehow described by all of creation. And that’s a great beginning point for a fiction writer. The dialogic imagination sees God as far more distant, a mystery with whom we can be in dialogue but who is otherwise beyond our understanding. It comes close to Manichaeanism with its hints that the world is evil and somehow alien or off-putting to God. That view can make fiction writing seem irrelevant at best and sinful at worst.
I think that this distinction is relevant to areas other than fiction. Prayer, for example. Seeing God as present in the world is great starting point for prayer.
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