18. Make believe: God and the world of fantasy

A resource for quiet reflection and prayer in small 
groups, services, personal devotions and the like

Aim
To explore different perspectives on fantasy.
To ask what this says about the search for spirituality.

Focus
A collection of paperbacks and videos on Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and similar imaginative writings

• Play some suitable music (perhaps from a film) while people relax and think about the focus.

• Either do a light-hearted quiz based on some well known fantasy works and establish those who tend to read/watch - and those who don't!

• Or invite people in pairs to consider a number of comments on cards such as:

1. This kind of thing is escapism – and a bad thing.
2. Fantasy creations are "the lie that tells the truth" about us.
3. It leads people to dabble in the occult.
4. Fantasy is the modern equivalent of the parables of Jesus.
5. There's more to this than simply entertainment.
6. It encourages children to use their imagination.
7. Stories can be more revealing than statements of doctrine
8. Other worlds suggest that there is more to life than we think.

People share their thoughts with the group. 

• Does this explain why some people are attracted and others switched off by this kind of material? 
• Are there childhood memories of stories – The Water Babies, Wizard of Oz, and so on?
• What are today's children watching and reading?

Play a clip of a video or read a paragraph from a book and invite people to sit and reflect and then share reactions. For example: the story of creation in "The Magician's Nephew" or the encounter with Pan (the Piper at the Gates) in "Wind in the Willows" or the mirror in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 

Can people think of other examples which have helped or challenged or hindered their spiritual journey?

Some quotations to reflect upon:

• C S Lewis on the "Narnia Chronicles":

Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument; then collected information about child-psychology and decided what age-group I'd write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out 'allegories' to embody them. 

This is all pure moonshine. I couldn't write in that way at all. Everything began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn't even anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord. It was part of the bubbling …

I thought I saw how stories of this kind could steal past a certain inhibition which had paralysed much of my own religion in childhood. Why did one find it so hard to feel as one was told one ought to feel about God or about the sufferings of Christ? I thought the chief reason was that one was told one ought to. An obligation to feel can freeze feelings. And reverence itself did harm. The whole subject was associated with lowered voices; almost as if it were something medical. 

But supposing that by casting all these things into an imaginary world, stripping them of their stained-glass and Sunday school associations, one could make them for the first time appear in their real potency? Could one not thus steal past those watchful dragons? I thought one could.
("On Stories and Other Essays in Literature")

• J R R Tolkien:

Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison walls?

Create some fantasy worlds
Invite people to think up a very different world from this one or to draw a picture; or to invent some stories around animals or characters.

These can be shared. The authors can reflect on what their creations tell them about themselves and their values and beliefs.

Suggestions for follow-up
"Sadhana, A Way to God" by Anthony de Mello, SJ. In this book of exercises the author encourages what he calls symbolical fantasies.

"A Charmed Life: the Spirituality of Potterworld" by Francis Bridger

"Sacred Longings" by Mary Grey

Look up "spirituality" and "fantasy" on the Internet.

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