Welcome to season 2 of the Imaginative Discipleship podcast - exploring meaning, imagination and transformation for Christians and the spiritually curious!
In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr Malcolm Guite, a poet, priest and scholar who has thought deeply about the imagination. Discover how imagination can unveil our sight to see reality more deeply.
Guite is also soon to release the first book in Merlin’s Isle, his epic poetic retelling of the story of King Arthur. We got into all sorts of interesting topics from dinosaurs to Doctor Who to dragons.
So listen in and let me know what you think in the comments!
Also available to watch on the Imaginative Discipleship YouTube channel.
Malcolm Guite
Twitter: twitter.com/malcolmguite
Facebook: facebook.com/malcolm.guite
Malcolm Guite’s books discussed
Lifting the Veil: Imagination and the Kingdom of God - Canterbury Press (UK); Amazon.com
Merlin’s Isle Book 1: Galahad and the Grail, illustrated by Stephen Crotts - Preorder from the Rabbit Room (US); Preorder from Canterbury Press (UK)
Faith, Hope and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination - Routledge
Arthurian literature and criticism
Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae
Alfred Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King
T. H. White, The Sword in the Stone and The Once and Future King
Roger Lancelyn Green, King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table
The Inklings and Arthur, edited by Sørina Higgins
Also mentioned
C S Lewis - Surprised by Joy, The Chronicles of Narnia, “Three Ways of Writing for Children”
G K Chesterton - The Ballad of the White Horse
Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Biographia Literaria
James K A Smith - Desiring the Kingdom
Esther Meek - Loving to Know; The Mother’s Smile
Sir James Frazer - The Golden Bough
Episode timings
0:00 Intro
0:42 Welcome to Imaginative Discipleship Season 2
2:36 Welcoming Malcolm Guite
6:18 Imagination as Organ of Meaning
10:23 Creativity and the Image of God
16:39 Discerning True Imagination
23:25 Baptized Imagination and Death to Self
27:56 Chronicles of Narnia and Doctor Who
31:41 Epic Poetry, Merlin's Isle and Mythopoetic Storytelling
41:17 Favourite Arthurian Tellings
55:13 Arthur, England, and National Identity
59:32 Retelling Arthurian Legend
1:01:22 The Growing Imaginative Resistance
