I thought it best to begin this series by considering the lens through which we see and understand the world around us. Not all lenses are equal. Each one of us interprets the world through stories, assumptions, fears, hopes, and inherited ways of understanding reality. We tend to accept the world as it is presented to us – divided, fearful, competitive, and resigned to the belief that things cannot truly change. But the prophetic voice has always invited us to see differently. The prophets of old did not just criticize the world around them; they imagined beyond it. They looked beneath the surface of empire, violence, exclusion, and scarcity, and proclaimed that another way of being human was possible. They called people to envision a world shaped not by fear, but by compassion; not by domination, but by justice, mercy, and belonging.

For this reason, before we explore the themes ahead, I would like to share the concept of ‘Prophetic Imagination.’ The hope is that in doing so, we may come to see that healing, reconciliation, and wholeness are so much more attainable than we have been taught to believe.

To see the earth and all of life with a ‘Prophetic Imagination’ – a term coined by author and theologian Walter Brueggemann in his book by the same name – means to see beyond the present reality of what is to a more profound reality of what could be. It is to reimagine the way. It is to look beyond immediate circumstances to what is not yet visible, a hopeful future shaped by restoration, beauty, and peace.

Seeing with a prophetic imagination is deeply aligned with the Hebrew concept of shalom, which in its fullest expression is peace, goodness, and wholeness between each of us and God, each of us and our own selves, each of us and all others, and each of us and the earth. This is God's dream for all of us. The restoration of shalom is the Christian “gospel”, or good news, in all of its richness. Prophetic Imagination challenges us to share God’s dream of heaven on earth, today, and then embody, or live out, that dream in our daily lives.

For Brueggemann, this concept originates in the ancient Hebrew scriptures where prophets communicated God's vision for a better world in two ways: First, they exposed the human cost of disordered societal systems (including, especially, religious systems) that are primarily built upon violence, oppression, exploitation, anxiety, consumption, and control. Secondly, they sparked hope and called people to action by envisioning what we could become rather than merely accepting things as they were. Think of the prophet Amos and his vision of justice rolling on like a river – a vision later echoed by contemporary prophet, Martin Luther King Jr, in his dream of a Beloved Community of all people. Or consider Isaiah, who imagined swords being beaten into farming instruments as a statement against all violence and toward a new community of peace and belonging. One of my favorites is the prophet Micah, whose beautiful image of every person sitting unafraid beneath their own vine and fig tree communicates a world where there is enough for everyone – a world not marked by fear or scarcity, but by security, generosity, and belonging.

To sum it up, Prophetic Imagination is the Spirit-inspired ability to see beyond disordered systems of fear, dominance, and fragmentation into God’s vision of reconciliation, justice, compassion, and wholeness.

As we continue to explore similar beautiful and transformative concepts, it is my greatest hope that you will approach them with a Prophetic Imagination, too.

A Blessing

And so, as we start out on this journey together, may we all, through the lens of our collective Prophetic Imaginations, reimagine the way toward God's dream of peace, goodness, and wholeness between each of us and God, each of us and our own selves, each of us and all others, and each of us and the earth.

Amen.

Coming soon - “Chapter Two: Love or Fear?”

Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it!