The Liberated Imagination Quotes

“The only knowledge that is worthwhile, writes Northrop Frye. "is the knowledge that leafs to wisdom, for knowledge without wisdom is a body without life.”
― Leland Ryken, The Liberated Imagination: Thinking Christianly About the Arts

“Meaning in fiction is thus viewed as what an action leads to, results in, or implies. If the experiment in living succeeds, the work can be said to affirm that world view. If the experiment fails, the work denies that view of reality and by implication usually suggests an alternative.”
― Leland Ryken, The Liberated Imagination: Thinking Christianly About the Arts

“Works of art can simultaneously present ugliness (at the level of subject or content) and beauty (at the level of form). People who want things tidy and controlled will stumble at this paradox, but we will make far more sense of modern art if we are bold enough to accept the paradox.”
― Leland Ryken, The Liberated Imagination: Thinking Christianly About the Arts

“When we first read about the image of God in people in Genesis 1, we have as yet heard nothing about God as redeemer or the God of providence or the covenant God or the God of moral truth. The one thing that we know about God is that he created the world. In its immediate narrative context, then, the doctrine of the image of God in people emphasizes that people, are, like God, creators.”
― Leland Ryken, The Liberated Imagination: Thinking Christianly About the Arts

“The first thing the Bible does is introduce us to the God of the universe. He is introduced as a creative artist.”
― Leland Ryken, The Liberated Imagination: Thinking Christianly About the Arts

“Chad Walsh, a contemporary Christian poet, writes that the creative artist 'can honestly see himself as a kind of earthly assistant to God (so can the carpenter), carrying on the delegated work of creation, making the fullness of creation fuller.”
― Leland Ryken, The Liberated Imagination: Thinking Christianly About the Arts

“How does one balance the fallen and redeemed aspects of life in the artistic portrayal of human experience in the world?”
― Leland Ryken, The Liberated Imagination: Thinking Christianly About the Arts

“How can we distinguish between the good and perverted use of beauty?”
― Leland Ryken, The Liberated Imagination: Thinking Christianly About the Arts