The Child and the Imagination: Understanding and Responding to the World

Abstract

This article discusses the use of the imagination in contemporary children's ministry models, drawing out conflicting approaches. Theological explanations of the imagination are then considered before proposing that the imagination has an input–output function. The input of the imagination works as a form of worldview glue giving it an eschatological, epistemological, and teleological function. The output of the imagination is a response to the input and therefore must be carefully managed.